A Bump in the Right Direction
by Ryder99
Summary: After Kurt makes a mistake at 17 and graduates at 18, he packs up and moves him and his son to Columbus. Years after they have started their life there Kurt runs into a man named Blaine (literally), will he be what he's always been looking for? Klaine, OCs, and some Cooper Anderson never hurt anybody right? Will be rated M for some language and later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! So i'm back, If anyone read my last story I truly appreciate you for reading and reviewing and enjoying it! I also know that the story was stopped right in the middle of it, but whilst writing it i was dealing with finals, work, family, and other stuff and the writing was just sort of put on the backburner until everything settled. By the time i wanted to actually write again i ended up just losing my enthusiasm for that story, so here is this new one! I really love the idea for this story and i'm going to actually try to finish this one (fingers crossed), i hope you enjoy this first installment of the story without a name… so far.**

 **Be sure to review and tell me what you think!**

 **Ryder**

"Come on buddy! Let's get going! You don't want to miss your first day of first grade do you?"

At that Kurt heard little footsteps running down the hall in the small apartment, a few moments later he saw his son with his spiderman backpack and paper bag lunch ready to go for school.

"I'm ready to go daddy!" Kurt's son, Eli called up to him.

"Good thing, we've got to go now or we're gonna be late!"

At that, Eli, or Elliot, jumped through the front door and down the front steps of their apartment building, waiting for Kurt at the bottom of the steps.

Kurt laughed and shook his head lovingly as he watched his son being so enthusiastic about school, he hoped he would keep this attitude for as long as possible. Kurt praised him for waiting for him rather than running away from him entirely and took his hand as they went to Kurt's car.

Kurt Hummel was 23 years old, his son Eli being six and looking so much like him it was scary. He worked at a local Starbucks near their house as a store manager, he had already been working for Starbucks for two years before his son was born, and since it was steady income he turned it into a full time job. After they saw his hard work and dedication, he managed to climb through the ranks to being at a solidly paying job, and being able to provide for himself and his son in their small but homey apartment. They had moved to Columbus a year after Eli was born. Once Kurt was sure he could take care of his son on his own and he convinced his dad, Burt, that he was ready to leave the metaphorical nest, he found a cheap two bedroom one bath apartment in Columbus and applied for a transfer position at a local Starbucks near his house. He left Lima and never looked back, taking his son and everything he had with him, only returning to see his family and the few friends he left behind at 18 right after graduation.

They hopped in the car and made the ten minute commute to Williamson Elementary School, or WES for short. Before Kurt could even fully put the car in park his son was excitedly unbuckling his seatbelt and grabbing his stuff to get ready to head into the school for his first day back. Kurt laughed again at his son's enthusiastic attitude and followed him into the school.

He turned to Kurt as they got to the main school grounds and asked, "Hey daddy, what room am I in?"

Kurt, who was holding his hand as he walked with him responded questioningly, "I believe you're in room 11 or 12, I can't remember, but i'm sure they right next to each other, we'll find out when we get there."

Luckily Kurt knew his way around the school by now, as he had taken a few tours with Eli when he was much younger and he was looking for a prospective school for Eli to enroll in kindergarten. When he told the principal about his situation being a single dad, and a single gay dad at that, he didn't seem to mind. Even though Columbus was a bit more open minded than Lima, he knew he still had to be careful, especially for his son's sake.

They wandered through the halls since they were early, and finally came across rooms 11 and 12, which shared a wall with one another. The classrooms looked so… well classroomy, was all Kurt could think of when he saw them. There were hooks outside of the room for kids to put their backpacks on before they went into the classroom, as well as random little pieces of art strewn across the fronts of both of the classrooms, probably from past students who came through these doors before his son. He loved the vibe that he got from the area around him, he knew it was going to be safe for his son.

A woman saw him standing with his son, who was getting restless just standing there holding his dad's hand looking around just as he was, the only difference between them being that Eli was bouncing in place excitedly at being able to be in a whole new classroom. She walked out of her classroom and smiled at him, it took him a moment but he smiled back and acknowledged her.

"Hi there! I'm Kurt, and this is my son Eli. We aren't sure whether he is in classroom 11 or 12, would you happen to be able to help us?"

The woman smiled and shook his hand, "My name is Mrs. Katherine, nice to meet you, Kurt? Was it?"

"Yep, Kurt Hummel."

She nodded in understanding, "Ahh so you must be Elliot Hummel then right?", she squatted on her knees and looked at him.

"That's me!" He said, almost yelling in her ear, "Am I in your class? I like you already! Can I be in your class?" Eli said, moving past her to look in the classroom.

Kurt blushed on account of his son, "Sorry about that, he's just excited to get back to doing something, summer wasn't as exciting as he hoped it would be."

She laughed, shrugging it off, "I wish my kids were still excited about school, they take any chance they can to get out of it, enjoy it while it lasts"

"I will most definitely try to do that then." He said, laughing with her, already liking her.

At that moment Kurt's phone beeped with a text message,

"Sorry just give me one second, I think it's work.", She nodded her understanding and went to entertain Elliot as he put his backpack on the first hook, being the first kid there he was quite proud.

Kurt read the text and saw that he was needed at his store. Not wanting to take advantage of her kindness but also needing to leave he asked Mrs. Katherine as he walked back over to her and pulled her aside,

"So someone from my store just texted me and asked me to come help them with something, I know it's early but is there any way you could watch him for a little bit before school starts?"

"Go ahead Mr. Hummel, i'm sure i'm going to have fun with this little guy."

Kurt smiled at her and shook her head again in goodbye, "Please, call me Kurt."  
"Then when not in the classroom, please call me Sarah.", she said it with a genuine smile and he knew he liked her already and that he was leaving his son in good hands.

He went up to Eli and hugged his boy goodbye, telling him he would pick him up from After-School after work and to have a good first day. Even though he was excited about his first day he was still upset to see his daddy go, so he gave him as long of a hug as he could before he absolutely had to leave. After his daddy left he went into the classroom with Mrs. Katherine while she showed him around, and he hoped he had a good first day without his daddy there.

 **Anyone like the naming of the school? I thought that was kinda clever…**

 **Anyway, please let me know what you thought of this first chapter, i've got the second one done already and i'm probably already working on the third one as you're reading this.**

 **Much love**

 **Ryder**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two! Here we go! As I am writing this chapter I still do not have a title for the story, but to before i'm writing these first to chapters in a night so give it some time and i'm sure it will come to me, or if anyone has ANY suggestions on the title feel free to write a review with your suggestion, i'd love to read them. Oh also thanks for all the love on this story already! It's going super well only after like 2 days since the first chapter so YAY! :)**

 **As always I hope you guys enjoy, review if you do… or don't, i don't mind.**

He turned and speed-walked down the corridor to get back to his car so that he could get to work as soon as possible. just as he turned, he bumped into a shorter, curly haired man walking with a little boy. As Kurt turned the corner, he bumped into the man's forehead and they both backed away gently rubbing their heads.

As Kurt recuperated and got a better look at the guy, his breath was immediately taken away, the most beautiful hazel brown eyes looked back at him and he couldn't focus on anything else, the previous thought of having to be at work immediately fading. He looked the man up and down, and saw that he was dressed in a very dashing navy blue suit, with a black bowtie on his neck, and a white shirt behind the vest.

He looked back at him with his brow furrowed and Kurt figured that he must have looked like a moron. He shook his head and brought himself back into reality and apologized.

"Sorry I wasn't looking, just in a hurry, I didn't mean to bump into you and your son, have a good day." and before he could walk away in embarrassment the man coughed nervously and spoke up,

"Uhm, would you happen to know where room 11 is?"

Kurt turned to look at him and shook his head in disbelief while doing a little dance of joy in his head in the process. The really cute, but probably straight dad, had a son who might be in the same class as Elliot. Which meant of course, that he would be surely seeing more of him. Of course this would happen to him in the middle of a work crisis.

Kurt decided to bite the bullet and get the conversation over with as soon as possible, rather than making a complete fool of himself in front of this attractive stranger,

"Yea, it's right down the hall that I came out of before bumping into you," he said before smirking a little bit and blushing some more, "and then it's on the end of the hall to your left, squished right next to classroom 12, can't miss it."

The man stuck his hand out in thanks and Kurt reluctantly took it, not wanting to let the already bland situation get to his head. He silently barraded himself and reminded himself that he had gotten on fine for the last six years alone, he didn't need another man in his life to make him happy.

"My names Blaine, and this big guy here is my nephew Charlie, say hi Charlie."

"Hi!", the little boy exclaimed, making Blaine and Kurt chuckle together.

Kurt immediately felt his mood lightened at the presence of the young boy that he honestly forgot about.

Kurt met Blaine's hand with his own and introduced himself, "My names Kurt, Kurt Hummel. My son Eli is in Charlie's class, I just left from dropping him off there actually."

Kurt couldn't help but think about how great Blaine's hand felt in his, his hand was slightly smaller than Kurt's but so firm and gentle at the same time. Kurt knew he was crazy but he felt like they fit together perfectly. Kurt was awoken out of his daze by Blaine removing his hand and speaking again.

"Wait there's till about 15 minutes to the bell, why did you drop him off so early?"

Kurt immediately woke up after realizing that he was being waited for at his job and was instead spending time with a stranger, albeit a very cute stranger, but nonetheless he had to leave.

"I actually was running to work when I ran into you, I really have to get going. I'll see you later.", Kurt turned at that after nodding his head in goodbye but not before Blaine responded with,

"I sure hope so.", before Kurt could leave without hearing him. He got a small smile on his lips at the idea of seeing Blaine again, and was that a flirtatious tone he was sensing? He was always so bad at reading guys but he was sure that was flirty.

He kept on debating with himself on the ride as to what Blaine had meant, keeping himself occupied while mentally preparing himself for the probably stressful day of work ahead of him.

Blaine walked around the corner fully, checking both ways to make sure that there were no more beautiful men running into his path, and walked with his nephews hand in his to head to his classroom. The whole time after their conversation Blaine couldn't stop thinking about Kurt, his mesmerizing blue eyes that just seemed to sparkle when he looked at them, his slim body covered by his black shirt and skinny jeans, obviously uniform for his work, his perfectly styled hair that looked fantastic even though Blaine just wanted to run his hands through it all day.

He shook himself awake as they approached the classroom and Charlie mournfully looked at the classroom, scared of starting somewhere new and leaving his favorite uncle. Blaine knew he was going to get like this and squatted down to his height in front of the ramp that lead up into the classroom.

"Hey buddy I know you're nervous, but before you know it your Daddy is going to be picking you up and you'll be able to tell him and mommy all about your first day, and then you'll get to call me and tell me about all of the fun you had okay?"

Charlie seemed satisfied enough with the answer and reluctantly followed Blaine up the short path to the classroom while he was greeted by a very bright smile from a woman that he could only assume was the teacher, and behind her a young boy that looked like a miniature version of Kurt and he laughed inwardly at himself, at already thinking like that.

The bubbly woman spoke to Charlie after getting down on his level just as Blaine had, and greeted him warmly,

"Hey there little man! What's your name?"

After she said that Charlie backed up behind Blaine's legs, nervous to meet his new teacher. Blaine looked at Charlie again and said,

"Hey buddy why don't you go try talking to that boy over there? You two are the first here, you should get to know each other before all the other kids come by."

Charlie listened to Blaine and walked over and meekly introduced himself to Eli. Nervous the whole time, but Eli just talked his head off and showed him the coloring book he was already playing with.

Blaine looked back up at the teacher apologetically and rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry, his name is Charlie Anderson, I'm his uncle Blaine, he's a bit shy at first so don't be to worried about him if he's quiet or anything, it just takes him a while to warm up to people."

She held out her hand for him to shake, "No problem at all, I've had plenty of kids like Charlie over the years, I know how to work with him, you have nothing to be worried about for your nephew."

"That's great to hear." Blaine said genuinely happy knowing that Charlie would be in good hands, and then feeling the need to explain why he was there instead of Charlie's parents.

"Charlie's parents, my brother and his fiance, both got dragged into work last minute and neither were able to bring him so that's why I'm here, they both work quite a lot and I spend all the time I can with Charlie, so I'm sure you're going to be seeing more of me in the future, but they'll be here to pick him up later." He cut himself off before he started rambling even more and she just smiled at him.

"No need for explanation, although I'm glad to know that I will be meeting the parents of Charlie later, and honestly I thought he was your kid, his curls look exactly like yours."

Blaine ducked his head and laughed, "Yea we both get those curls from my mom, I guess she passed it down to Charlie so he was stuck with the curse of the curls as I am."

She laughed along with him and they continued polite conversation before he had to leave for work and as more students were filing into the room. He said another goodbye to Charlie after assuring him again that his mommy or daddy would be there really soon to pick him up so he could tell them about his day. He gave Charlie a quick hug before he left and left the room, heading down the same hallway he went through when he ran into the mystery man known as Kurt.

Even though he had only had one short conversation with the man, he knew he wanted to see more of him, there was just something about him that Blaine couldn't get out of his head, itching him to talk to Kurt, and as soon as he could. These thoughts followed him all the way to his office and as he pulled into the parking garage he was left with more questions than answers in his head about Kurt Hummel.

 **Just a quick FYI, to make sure what happened with my last story doesn't happen with this one, (because TBH i like the idea for this story WAY more than IJACR) I am going to not be uploading on a regular schedule, but i'm going to be uploading one chapter as soon as i am done writing the next, to keep myself writing more consistently. (AKA: I only publish CH 2 when i'm done with CH 3 sort of thing)**

 **Just wanted to let you guys know.**

 **\- Ryder :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three here we go! I hope you guys have enjoyed so far and continue to!**

 **Oh and if you haven't seen i still can't think of a title for this story! It's killing me!! So honestly if anyone has any suggestions i'm all ears… or… eyes i guess. So yea…**

As Kurt pulled up to a red light he decided that he should not spend the whole morning thinking about someone he has only had one conversation with. Instead he decided to go to his ipod and turn on his "Morning Gaga" playlist, to keep his mind off of things. Right as he was putting his phone back down and his music started to play again he heard a honk come from behind him, he looked up and realized that the light was green. He waved to the frustrated driver behind him in apology and continued his drive to work, this time without thinking about Blaine.

He walked into work 15 minutes later singing gaga and smiled at his coworkers warmly. They were so used to his random outbursts of song that they just laughed and waved at him as he walked in, continuing to help their regular early morning customers as he went into the back room.

The back room was smaller than he wanted it to be, but it suited the needs of the store and that's all he really wanted. His old store had had such a small space for inventory that it drove everyone mad, even when he was a barista it drove him up the wall.

He clocked in and put on his black apron and prepared himself for the day ahead of him. He peeked his head out from the back door that was right next to the bar and called out to one of the baristas working.

"Hey Shelly, is there anything you need on bar before I come out?"

"Hi Kurt!", the perky blonde responded, always happy to see him. They had a good relationship and Kurt secretly hoped that she wasn't planning on leaving any time soon. "Can you get me some grande hot lids, grande iced flat lids, and some more vanilla from the back?"

He was already turned on his heels and yelled out an "On it!" before he turned to the back to get the girl the supplies he needed her.

Blaine pulled into the parking garage of the building that he had grown to despise. He got out of his car with his briefcase that contained the files he needed for the day that he had previously taken home in one hand, and his laptop in the other hand. He triple checked his suit pockets for his keys, wallet, phone, and his headphones and got into the elevator to go up to his floor.

As he stepped off of the elevator he saw the sign he knew all too well that read, "Anderson Law" and walked down the halls to his office as inconspicuous as possible, as to not be seen by his father, he couldn't deal with him just yet. He smiled to the one friend he had made at his firm since starting, Angela, in greeting before slipping into his office unseen.

He was able to get five minutes of peace to himself and set up his laptop and got to work before his dad barged into the room unannounced.

"Have you got those files for the Michelson case finished for me? Or is it going to take you longer, as per usual?"

He could tell his father wanted him to need more time on it, just so he could add that to the reasoning for the 'as per usual' part of his daily harassment speech. Even though Blaine turned in his work early or on time 9/10 times, he always liked to do a good, thorough job though, so he usually found himself double checking and sometimes triple checking his work for anything his dad could accuse him of being an idiot for.

He dug into his briefcase and presented his father with the files he was asking for, completed, highlighted, and categorized, without saying a word to him. He just wanted him to leave his office so he could get as much work done as possible before having to head home and repeat the grueling process over again.

His father seemed satisfied enough with his work that he left his office, closing the door behind him without saying anything else. Blaine hated that after all of these years his father was still able to get so under his skin, he thought he would be used to this by now, even though no child should be used to it.

Blaine had come out at the age of 15 to his family, he first came out to his brother and arguably his best friend, Cooper. Cooper had supported him all the way and was glad his brother trusted him enough to tell him first. Their father however, had not taken it as well as Cooper, in fact he had been furious. He started swearing up and down at Blaine and blaming him as if it was his own choice, and he was just trying to upset his father.

In an attempt to get on his father's good side, after graduating Dalton Academy, where he had gone to high school, he decided to attend law school. He had gotten into Harvard Law, and while his mother and brother were incredibly proud of him, his father found it difficult to even congratulate him because he was gay. Blaine never even wanted to be an attorney, he had always wanted to be an artist. One of the few things he did outside of work was paint in his apartment, he had a room dedicated to just his artwork.

Even though he felt as though he never needed the approval of his father, the only reason he kept working at the job he hated was because he wanted the approval of him, he wanted to feel loved by someone other than his brother and sister and law, and occasionally his mother.

He dug his headphones out of his pocket and plugged them into his laptop, he turned on his spotify playlist which consisted of Katy Perry, Mumford and Sons, Eminem, Britney Spears, Arctic Monkeys, and the occasional Lady Gaga song. He called it his work playlist but he listened to it pretty much all the time anyway. He set off to work on a new case that was piled on to his desk waiting for him when he arrived, and got lost in his work.

Before he knew it he was packing his stuff up at the end of the day, exhausted. Angela had brought him his favorite lunch, assuming that he was going to be working through most of the day and was going to forget about eating again. She had stayed with him to keep him company while they ate, and it had reminded again how much he appreciated her friendship. He hadn't made a lot of friends since moving back to chicago, his best friends were Cooper, Cooper's wife Elizabeth, and Angela, and of course Charlie. Charlie was his number one.

As he was going back down the elevator and getting into his car he reminded himself to call Cooper so he could talk to Charlie. Every time he got to talk to that boy it cheered him up, even after a particularly bad day.

Blaine plugged his phone into his car and setup the bluetooth speakerphone so that he could call the family on his way back to his apartment. After a few rings he was able to get ahold of them.

"Hi uncle Blaine!!", Charlie yelled from the other side.

Blaine laughed, not expecting to hear his nephews voice when calling Coopers phone, but he patiently let Charlie talk his head off about his first day back at school. He kept on talking about some boy named Elliot, and he could have sworn he had heard that name before but couldn't figure out where. By the end of Charlie talking about his new best friend, the thought occurred to Blaine, Elliot, or Eli, was Kurt's son.

After what felt like an eternity to Blaine but only a couple of minutes to Charlie, Cooper grabbed the phone from his son and told him to go get ready for bed.

"Sorry about that, this is the most hyper i've ever seen him about school."

"I'm just glad he's happy about school, and that he was happy enough to tell me about it without me asking him. Nothing to apologize for." Blaine replied to his brother, confused why he was apologizing in the first place.

"He says there's this boy named Elliot, they are already friends apparently." Cooper sounded astounded, but happy nonetheless.

"Yea so i've been told, I actually met Elliot's dad before I took Charlie to class, his name is Kurt."

"Why does it sound like you're already in love with him?" Cooper laughed down the line, obviously noticing how Blaine had gone googly eyed at the mystery man.

"What are you talking about?" Blaine asked, defensively, surely there was no way his brother new he was thinking about him.

"I'm talking about the fact that you're thinking about him but trying not to think about him because you only met him today and don't want to get ahead of yourself because you think he is either straight since he has a kid."

"Fuck.." Blaine muttered under his breath, obviously not quiet enough for it to go unnoticed by his brother.

"Ha! I got you brother, and if you want to see him again, I'll find another time for you to drop of Charlie and maybe you can run into your mystery crush to find more out about him. Hmm?"

Blaine hated when Cooper got like this, sure he had been single for a long time, and maybe he hadn't had a serious relationship like… ever. But that didn't mean he wasn't able to find a guy perfectly fine, he didn't need his brothers help. He knew how to deal with his brother when he was like this so he just indulged him for now.

"Alright Coop, if you ever need Charlie to be dropped off let me know and I'll take him."

"Will do brother, I'm gonna go, gotta go help the little booger get ready for bed and read him his story."

"Alright Cooper, tell Liz I say hi and bye."

"Talk to you later."

"Cya Coop."

Blaine turned off his speaker and his playlist started playing again, landing on "Little Lion Man" by Mumford and Sons.

Blaine started singing along to the song that he knew so well on his way home, and distracted himself from the thoughts that were plaguing the back of his mind.

But it was not your fault but mine

And it was your heart on the line

I really fucked it up this time

Didn't I, my dear?

Didn't I, my dear?

He pulled into a parking spot across the street from his apartment building, grabbed his laptop and briefcase, and headed inside. He sighed and leaned his head back on his door as he closed it and slid down it. With his head in his hands he started crying, and he had no idea why.

He pulled himself up after a couple of minutes, forced himself to shower, and got into his pyjamas. Or, a pair of old basketball shorts and a loose t-shirt. He climbed into bed and turned his music on again, falling asleep to the tunes of Katy Perry, exhausted and with no desire to do anything else for the night.

 **Hey guys! I know this chapter focused pretty heavily on Blaines side of the story but it was just kind of how I wanted it to go. I don't really outline these before i do them, i just write as i feel, and honestly i like where this is going. To make up for the lack of Kurt and Eli in this chapter, i'm going to begin with their POV in the next one.**

 **Just an FYI even though it was mentioned i want to say how great of a song "Little Lion Man" is and i highly suggest looking it up, it's on spotify and youtube and stuff so yea listen to that. Punk Goes Pop also did a REALLY good cover of it so if you're into them i suggest giving their rendition a listen to.**

 **Sorry for the super long author's note, as always i hope you enjoyed. Let me know what you think.**


	4. Chapter 4

**i hi hi hi hi! So i have sort of written chapters 3 and 4 in the same night, and i wrote chapters 1 and 2 in the same night, the night before writing this one. I just sort of got the idea for this story and i haven't been able to stop writing it when i get into bed on my laptop. That meaning though, that i haven't seen any reviews for chapters 2 or 3 upon writing this one. But as always i hope you enjoy this story so far.**

Kurt plopped down into the back desk on his lunch break and dug in on his leftover pasta from the night before. Dealing with customers was exhausting and today was no acception. By 1:00 he was already tired of dealing with everyone and he wanted to go home and snuggle up with Eli to watch movies on the couch before his bedtime. "Only two more hours" he thought to himself. He had gotten into work at 8:45 and had scheduled himself until 3:30. He usually worked 9:00 until 4:00 or 4:30, but he wanted to see his son as soon as possible so he could tell him all about his first day.

Sooner than he would have liked his lunch break was over and he was back to working. Instead of heading out to the floor right away though, he worked on things that needed to be handled in the back, like timestamps, their order of supplies, and general organization.

He needed to give himself any excuse to not have to talk to anyone for at least a little while longer, and he also had to get this stuff done as soon as possible. Things piling up in the back was his least favorite thing to happen to him at work.

He checked on the girls in the front to make sure that they were okay, and since the rush had long died down, he figured he was good to start his tasks. He told them to call him if they needed help, but hoped that they wouldn't end up needing him.

Before he knew it he was heading back to WES to pick up his baby boy who

wasn't entirely a baby anymore. He walked out of the store saying goodbye to his

coworkers and even though it was only monday he had a feeling it was going to be

a good week. Only about a block away from his work he hit a red light and saw the

same building over again, but there was something different about it and he

couldn't figure out what it was. It was just a large office building, but he couldn't

shake the feeling that there was something different about it. He shrugged it off

when the light turned green and continued the drive to see his son.

He went up to the portable that consisted of the after school daycare staff

and the kids. He said hello to the usual crew, getting to know them since he had to send Elliot there during Kindergarten too.

"Hi Jenny! How are you?" He asked, he had a great relationship with all of

the staff there, everyone was accepting of him being gay and they didn't look at

him like he was worthless. A nice change of pace from the people in Lima. They

were also just genuinely nice people.

"Hi Kurt! I'm great! How are you? Little Eli is playing out on the field with

Mike and Jeremy and some of the other kids."

"I'm great, and thanks, i'll go get his stuff then head up to the field to grab

him." He said, while signing Eli out and heading over to grab his backpack

out of one of the cubbies.

"Sounds good, have a great rest of your day Kurt!", Jenny said.

"Thanks Jen! You too." Kurt replied with a smile on his face, excited to see

his son after his day.

He headed out the door and up the ramp that lead to the playground as well as the big grass field that most of the kids played football on with the staff. He immediately caught sight of his son with a football in his hands running in the direction of the other team. At that moment Kurt so saw much of Finn in him, even though they weren't biologically related, that Kurt started laughing to himself as he headed towards him.

He let him play for a few more minutes before he called out his name.

"Eli! Come on let's head home."

Eli turned his head at the mention of his name and smiled bright when he saw his dad.

"One more play dad! Pleaseee!"

"Alright buddy but we don't have a lot of time." Kurt yelled back, feeling strange for having a shouting match with his son across a field.

He leaned back on a pole and watched his son with his arms across his chest, a huge smile on his face at seeing his son so excitable. He also kept on replaying the smile his son gave him upon seeing he was there, it made him so happy to see his son and he was glad his son was happy to see him in return.

Mike threw the ball across the field to Eli and he managed to jump up and catch it before landing on the ground. He hopped up in triumph and started cheering with his hands above his head. Excited about scoring his touchdown. Kurt laughed and clapped for his son while Eli went and high fived Mike.

Eli ran over to Kurt and jumped into his arms, Kurt lifted him up onto his hip and held him to his side.

"You know you're getting to big for me to be able to do this, you're getting heavy."

"Yea, but you love holding me so it's okay." Eli said, making sense to himself.

"You're right buddy I do." Kurt said laughing.

"Did you see my catch dad! That was so cool!" Elliot said, pure excitement in his voice.

"I did E! Good job!" Kurt held out his hand for him to high five it and he took the offer excitedly.

Kurt put Eli down after a few minutes because honestly the kid was heavy. He gave Eli his backpack to put on his back and they headed home to eat dinner and watch TV before Eli had to go to bed.

Kurt unlocked the door and Eli bolted into the apartment, heading into his room to put his backpack down and play with his power rangers action figures. Kurt just shook his head lovingly and headed into his own room, calling out "Dinner soon!" to Eli before removing his shoes and changing into more comfortable clothes. He put on an old pair of Mckinley High sweatpants and a long sleeve black t-shirt.

He headed out of his room and into the kitchen to prepare dinner, except he had no idea what he wanted to eat. He decided on making himself and Eli a salad and then Eli some chicken nuggets. Even though Kurt planned on eating most of the salad he wanted Eli to have some sort of veggies, but he really didn't have the energy to go through a full meal today.

15 minutes later he was calling Eli in for dinner and they sat at their little table so that Eli could inhale his food whilst telling Kurt about every (literally every) part of his day, and Kurt couldn't have been happier.

They finished eating and climbed onto the couch together, Kurt let Eli pick the show because Kurt honestly didn't care. Kurt found himself nodding off during the Power Rangers theme song.

He was awoken some time later by his son who was still on his lap but this time he was excitedly singing along to a different episode of power rangers, not even aware that Kurt had fallen asleep behind him.

Kurt laughed at his son and checked his phone to see the time, seeing it was 7:00 he told eli that that was the last episode before bed.

45 minutes later Eli was in bed and Kurt was heading back into his own room. He hopped in the shower before bed and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Having a face reoccurring in his dream, one that he couldn't remember the origin of.

 **Hmmmm whose face was that? I wonder. Thankfully i don't have a super drawn out AN for this one, except for people to pLEASE GIVE ME IDEAS FOR A TITLE AHHH. At this point it's kind of comical, might just keep the title. "An untitled AU", maybe that draws more people in, who knows…**

 **As always, let me know what you guys think! Much love 3**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi hi hi! Guess who's back… back again…**

 **Uhm ok so crappy eminem jokes aside, I just want to give a special thanks to LvSammy for the continued support on my stories, you're awesome! I also want to thank anyone that has viewed, favorited, reviewed, or followed this story, you guys are so awesome! We are about to hit like 500 views on this story already which is crazy. Much love 3**

 **Anyways i hope you guys enjoy this chapter**

 **\- Ryder :D**

Blaine awoke to the sound of his phone ringing on his bedside table, he didn't bother to look at the ID, only three people called him, and only two of them he enjoyed talking to, he figured he would take his chances.

"Blainey boy!" His brother screeched on the other line, much to awake at… oh it was already 7:30. Blaine figured he must have not heard his alarm go off, but it was so early he couldn't even put in the energy to care.

"I told you not to call me that Coop," Blaine said, still drowsy from sleep. "Do you need me to drop Charlie off at school again? Cause if so I need to start getting ready like… now" He said, more awake.

"No no no, quite the contrary little brother, I was actually wondering if you would be able to pick him up from school, his class ends at 1:00." Cooper pleaded from the other line. "Me and Liz both got called in to stay late and i don't think i'm going to be able to get on my lunch in time to bring him back to work with me, and the sitter hasn't responded to any of my texts."

Blaine sighed on the other end, he wanted to help his brother, but his dad kept him in the office until at least 5:30 every day.

"I would love to Coop, but dad keeps me in the office till like 5:00 or 5:30, even if I was able to go snag him on my lunch, I don't think you or myself would ever want him in the toxic environment known as Anderson Law."

"You're right, I swore I would never let my kid step onto that floor, plus, the less contact with dad the better."

Cooper didn't hate his dad per say, he just really disliked him. His father never did anything to him specifically, but they way that he has and still continues to treat Blaine makes him very close to hating him. He's spent his entire life taking care of his little brother, and that won't change until he is on his deathbed.

Blaine was surprised that he thought of an idea still so asleep, but he yelled as a metaphorical light bulb turned on above his head.

"Wait! What if you just send him to that after school program thing that the school offers, and I can pick him up and then bring him back to my apartment and make him dinner."

Cooper laughed at his brothers enthusiasm to see Charlie, sometimes he wondered if he loved Charlie more than he loved him.

"I can check if they take like last minute daily things, let me give them a call and I'll call you back, go take a shower. I can smell you from here and I'm blocks away."

Blaine scoffed as a fake laugh and said

"Yea? Can you see the middle finger I'm holding up to you?"

Cooper started laughing along with Blaine and hung up the phone, but, Blaine did as he was told and took a shower. Just as he was stepping back into his room with his towel around his waist, looking through his closet for an outfit for the day, his phone starting ringing on his bed where he had left it.

Without looking at the ID again, he swiped the answer call button to the right and put the phone to his ear.

"So, can they do it Coop?"

"Yea they said that you will be able to come pick Charlie up and you just have to sign him out at some sheet at their front desk, I had them all the office to double check that you were in fact allowed to pick him up, and since you were already on our contact list, they said there should be no trouble. Just be sure to bring some sort of identification."

Blaine nodded along even though his brother couldn't see him. "Alright C, I'll see you later tonight then. With your son in company… Hopefully."

At the 'hopefully' Blaine chuckled and hung up the phone with an exasperated brother on the other line.

He looked at the time again and realized that he was running rather early. Since he didn't have to get into the office by 8:30 on tuesdays and it was only 7:45, he figured he could grab a coffee before work. He never really allowed himself little pleasantries like that, but it had to be a good day if he was able to see Charlie at the end of it right?

Instead of sulking around his apartment for the rest of the morning until he had to head to his least happiest place on earth, he figured he might as well get to know his little area in columbus a little better. Who could blame him right?

"Honey I told you I have to drop you off and head to work right away, I will try and help out in your class another time, plus it's only the second day, I have plenty of time." Kurt explained to Elliot after the fourth time he asked him to wait with him at school for a little while.

By the time Kurt had finished explaining why he couldn't this time they were pulling into the schools parking lot. He brought a simultaneously reluctant and over excited Eli up to his classroom, the whole time thinking to himself "Was I really like that as a kid? Or did he get that energy from Britt. Either way I need to hug dad more to compensate for my kid me."

They got up to the classroom and Eli ran up to his new best friend Charlie, already talking about whatever nonsense children at the age of six talk about. "Probably the current geopolitical situation we are in with Japan." Kurt thought to himself, chuckling in the process.

He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see a tall curly haired man with a light stubble. He could have sworn he had seen him before but he couldn't figure out where.

"Hi! My name is Cooper Anderson," He said, holding his hand out to shake, Kurt took it almost on autopilot."

"Kurt Hummel, i'm Eli's dad." he responded, smile on his face of thinking of his son.

"Ahh so you're the famous Eli's dad, Charlie hasn't been able to stop talking about his new best friend since dinner last night." Cooper said laughing, and peering over Kurt's shoulder to keep an eye on their kids.

"Yea neither has Eli, apparently they hit it off quite nicely." Kurt said, pleased that his son had a friend, even if it was just one friend, he was happy with that. Another thought occurred to him as he was watching Cooper expectantly.

"Your son came here yesterday with another man, about your height, same head of curls but looked liked it was trying to be gelled down. I think he said his name was Blaine. Is there a relation between you two or just an insane coincidence?" Kurt knew that of course his name was Blaine, and that he obviously was related to him in some way, but he didn't want to sound so eager to his new crushes brother.

Cooper blinked and realized he was talking about Blaine.

"Yes that would be Blaine, and yes we are brothers. Liz and I are both sporadically very busy, and Blaine loves Charlie like he's his own, so he helps out whenever he can."

Kurt blinked back tears.

"Liz being… Elizabeth. Being your wife?"

"Yep that would be her, she's great. Absolute love of my life."

Kurt nodded before claiming that he had to be at work as soon as possible and left the school with tears pooling in his eyes. He didn't know why just the mention of his mother's name still brought him tears, but he wasn't able to hold them back this time. He checked the time on his car's clock and saw that it was only 8:30. If he drove to work now he would be there by about 8:50 assuming traffic, which meant he would only be a little bit early. He decided that instead of crying on his steering wheel for the next ten minutes, he might as well be productive.

He pulled into his usual parking spot, grabbed his messenger bag with his sketchbook, laptop, and apron in it, and headed to the store. He put on his "work face" as he called it and said hello to everyone in the store that he could name, coworkers included of course. They all yelled a responsive "Hi Kurt!" back.

He walked into the back room to set his stuff down. After walking into the main floor he saw that same head of curls that he could have sworn he dreampt about the night before standing at the register. He walked up next to him, and said to Ashley.

"Hey Ash, can you get me my grande nonfat mocha, and then whatever he wants. It's on me."

Blaine turned to look at him like he was crazy, and also incredibly surprised that he was even there in the first place.

Kurt nodded to him and motioned for him to order, when he found the words to speak he said.

"Just a grande medium drip for me please and thanks."

As the girl turned around to grab Blaine his coffee and write Kurt's drink, he turned to him.

"So this is where the famous work emergency led you huh? I don't doubt it, I bet it gets insane here."

Kurt turned to him and nodded, not trying to notice the little stubble on his cheeks and chin. Or how cute his suit looked on him and how it fit perfectly in all the right places. Or how he just seemed to keep on looking at Kurt like he was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Just in time before Kurt had a meltdown, Ashley turned back around with Blaine's coffee and Kurt's mocha on the bar. Kurt gave the girl his partner numbers for his discount and payed the difference. Blaine insisted on paying again but Kurt wouldn't hear it.

Kurt turned to him again, "I've gotta head into the back, but maybe I'll see you around the school or something?" he said with a wink, and walked into the back room, a bit of a sway of his hips with his step.

Blaine followed him with his eyes as Ashley coughed to bring him back to reality. He shook his head and went over to the condiment bar to put milk and sugar in his coffee and head to his own job. He turned back just as he was leaving to see Kurt with an apron on and talking to a coworker, but when he turned Blaine's way, Blaine just gave him a wink and walked out of the store. Leaving Kurt with a blush on his face unclearable for the next thirty minutes.

He couldn't figure out what it was about Blaine Anderson, but the mystery kept him intrigued, he wanted to figure out what was in that gelled down head of his.

 **Ahhh! They finally crossed paths woo! So far i think the longest chapter of this story so far, and honestly it's kinda weird to be so ahead on the writing, I just can't top. It's kind of like my little zen mode before i have to go to bed every night. For the last couple nights i have just hopped into bed and typed away.**

 **I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far, be sure to let me know if you are, or if you aren't. Any feedback is helpful, just don't be a dick about it.**

 **\- Ryder :D**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you guys so much for all of the positive feedback recently on this story! I've read all of the reviews and it's crazy that people actually enjoy this story as much as they do.**

 **It's also come to my attention that people don't really care about what the title is, so i guess as a group we can just find a fitting title as time goes on.**

 **Thank you again for reading, and i hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

 **Ryder :D**

The rest of the day went by pretty uneventfully for Kurt. It was just the usual customers getting their usual drinks at their usual times. Kurt doing his managerial tasks at the same times as usual, and coordinating the shift to determine what everyone was doing, when they were doing it, and how to space out each person's breaks.

By the time he left the store though, it was already 5:30. He knew he was later than usual to meeting his son at after school but they at least stayed open until 6:30, so he had plenty of time. Taking advantage of the time he had, he made a quick stop at home to shower and change into something more his style before leaving to pick up Eli.

He decided on a tight pair of black skinny jeans and a light blue long sleeved t-shirt to bring out his eyes. He styled his hair just enough to where it looked good but he didn't have to spend an hour on it. He hopped back in his car and put his music on, starting the short drive to the school.

Pulling into the usual parking lot and stepping out he was still singing lady gaga. He stopped as he got to the portable, thinking people would think he was crazy for singing gaga at an elementary school. Just as he walked in through the portable though, he caught sight of that same mass of curly hair, and as if by some 6th sense, Blaine turned to him just as he walked in.

Blaine smiled as he saw him, a small smile, but genuine, Kurt felt himself instantly blushing, he just hoped that nobody else noticed it. Blaine bent down to talk to Charlie and watched him run over to Eli. As Kurt was filling out the sign out sheet, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He looked up to see a smirking Blaine. Kurt looked at him quizzically and continued writing down the information, while checking the time on his phone.

Blaine spoke up then, figuring he was getting nowhere,

"So, two times in one day… and you bought me coffee? Is this my lucky day?"

Kurt laughed at that and stood back up straight.

"Hmm. I don't know, why would you find that lucky? Except for the free coffee."

Blaine figured this was his chance to make a move, 'now or never' he thought to himself, even though he knew that probably wasn't true, this was as good of an opportunity as anything.

"Well I figure seeing the same attractive man twice in the same day to be pretty lucky."

Kurt felt himself mentally reel backwards, even though he was pretty sure he stayed still. His eyes widened and the blush on his face spread everywhere, he knew he looked as red as a tomato but he had so many thoughts racing through his head.

 _So, the cute guy who is my son's, best friend's uncle, likes me. Confirming he is in fact gay, or at least bi. Meaning that my crush wasn't entirely misplaced. He has confirmed that he thinks that i'm cute. This isn't the first time i've gone out with someone since Eli was born, but this is the first time I've liked somebody this much before even going on a date with them first. What about Eli though, the only guy I liked enough to introduce him to left as soon as they met._

His thoughts were cut off by an eager Eli running up to him and giving him as much of a hug as he could around his waist. Kurt came to and knelt down so his son could wrap his arms around his neck. Kurt kissed his cheek before sending him off to grab his stuff so they could go home. He looked over and Blaine was still standing there sheepishly.

 _Hmm so i didn't scare him off by zoning out for a second, that's a good sign._

 _You might as well just go for it Kurt, you deserve happiness, right?_

"How about you try and continue your luck streak by letting me give you my number?" He said it before he could even think about it, his old high school cockiness coming out. He hated himself for that but what was said could not be taken back.

Blaine's smirk grew impossibly bigger and he dug his phone out of his pocket, prompting Kurt to enter his phone number. He put in "Kurt ;)" as the contact name, figuring a little flirtatiousness never hurt anyone. At seeing Kurt's contact decision, Blaine started to blush, not used to getting any attention from guys since he moved here. It seemed they were both a bit shy to be getting any attention from an attractive guy.

A few moments later, Eli and Charlie came in arms locked, and ready to leave. Kurt willed away his blush while Blaine had a bit of a harder time to keep himself composed. They both yelled their thanks to the staff of the after school care and headed for the parking lot, the two boys maintaining a very animated conversation about… power rangers? Kurt couldn't tell, all he was focused on was the impossibly cute man next to him who he was hopefully going to have a date with sooner rather than later.

It turned out that they didn't park very far away from each other, the boys hopped into the back seats in each of the cars and got ready to go home, leaving Blaine and Kurt to talk outside.

"So…" Blaine said, awkwardly, not knowing what to to.

"So." Kurt said, drawing out the "o" a bit more than Blaine did, trying to sound seductive but figuring he failed.

He didn't, not according to Blaine.

"Are you free this weekend? Maybe friday night?" Blaine asked, not trying to sound too eager, but also being very eager.

"I have Eli on the weekends, I don't have anyone to watch him otherwise I would love to."

Blaine thought for a second, before proposing an idea he hoped Kurt wouldn't immediately reject.

"What if I ask my brother to watch them? I mean he owes me for the amount of times I've brought Charlie to and from school… Not that I would only do it for a favor but still. Plus Eli would be with a friend and they would be watched by my brother."

Kurt thought for a moment, he had barely spent a night away from his son, even if it was just a date, it didn't have to be more than that. Just the thought of leaving his son made him anxious though. He hated being apart from him, at work he would much rather be with his son.

Blaine could see the unease in Kurt's eyes, just the mention of someone else looking after his son seemed to send him into an entirely new world of thought. He knew he wouldn't get anywhere from pushing it, so instead he went the passive route, he figured someone like Kurt was worth it. He didn't know why, but he knew there was something special about Kurt.

"Don't worry about it, if you're not comfortable leaving Eli, then we can figure something out another time."

Kurt immediately took it back.

"No it's okay, you can ask your brother."

"I can tell from the look in your eyes that you most definitely do not want to leave your son, even for the night." Blaine stepped a little bit closer then, he could feel Kurt's breath in the cold night. It sent a shiver through his spine, and he decided to be a bit bold considering the circumstances.

"How about you tell me when you're ready, because I would really love the chance to take you out on a proper date." At that Blaine leaned in and kissed Kurt's cheek, giving him a wink and turning around to get into the car to bring Charlie home.

Kurt blushed beet red as soon as Blaine leaned in, but he missed the feeling of his lips on his cheek. He missed the close proximity of being right there with Blaine, and he really missed that lustrous tone he was using with Kurt. It was the first time in a very long time that anyone found Kurt attractive, and he most definitely was not used to it.

Kurt took a few deep breaths before getting back into the car, to find Eli buckled into his carseat in the back, concentrating very hard on a coloring book. As Kurt started the car Eli looked up at him,

"You okay daddy?" Eli asked, concerned seeing Kurt's face completely red.

"Don't worry buddy, i'm fine. How about you tell me all about your day while we head home and I make us some dinner."

Without being to be told twice, Eli launched into a very animated tale about his day, most of it involving Charlie or Mrs. Katherine. Kurt loved that Eli found such a good friend, he knew how difficult it could be to make friends, even at a young age.

Blaine couldn't keep the smile off of his face as he drove back to his apartment with a non-stop talking Charlie in his back seat. He kept on thinking about Kurt, and how he hadn't pulled away from his peck on the cheek, or how he had given him his number without even needing to ask. He really wanted to ask but just couldn't find it in him to say it. He couldn't stop thinking about the little winky face that Kurt added to his contact. Was that something that Kurt usually did? Or did he save that for him?

He tuned into Charlie's rant every now and again, usually hearing something about Eli or a drawing he had made in class that day. He loved seeing Charlie so happy, he was always happy around Blaine, but he knew how shy he was around other kids at school, and it put his mind at ease knowing that Charlie had found such a good friend in Eli, especially on the first day.

They pulled into Blaine's parking spot soon after and they went up the elevator to Blaine's apartment. He prepared dinner for Charlie, not being very hungry himself, and situated himself at the kitchen table with him, reading files on his laptop for work.

"Uncle Blaine?", Charlie spoke up.

"Whats up C?", Blaine asked

"Do you like Kurt?" Charlie asked,

Blaine was a bit thrown by the question, he didn't know Charlie was paying attention to them when he was in the back seat, he figured he had occupied himself with something from his backpack. He decided to take the safe route and figure out what Charlie was thinking.

"Why do you ask that?" Blaine responded.

"I dunno, you get kinda funny around him, like that other guy from before, I can't remember his name though. Your face turns red whenever Kurt comes by too."

Blaine laughed at Charlie's perceptiveness.

"Oh and you kisseded him on the cheek before we left school earlier."

"Kissed." Blaine corrected on autopilot, not able to really think of anything else to respond with.

He figured the truth couldn't hurt, Charlie was only 7 after all.

"I don't know how I feel about Kurt yet Charlie, but right now he's just a friend to me, I mean we've only met like three times."

Okay, maybe that answer wasn't entirely truthful but it also wasn't a lie. He did know that he liked Kurt, just one look at him told him enough. Charlie seemed satisfied with that answer though, and went back to picking at his pasta.

Blaine spoke up again though, "Charlie?" Blaine asked, prompting the boy to stick his head up, "How about you don't tell daddy about Kurt, it'll be our little secret instead." Blaine said, hoping it would keep him from telling Cooper, he didn't want his brother nosing in on something that he himself barely knew anything about.

"Okay Uncle B, our little secret" Charlie said with a concrete nod, Blaine smiled at that and went back to reading on his laptop.

Twenty minutes later found Blaine and Charlie watching Disney movies from Blaine's personal collection on his couch, waiting for Cooper to show up. A ping sent his phone vibrating and Blaine checked to see if it was indeed Cooper telling he was there.

 _Just got here, I'll be up in two minutes_

Blaine didn't bother responding, knowing that his brother probably wouldn't even check his phone.

He heard a knock a few moments later and went up to greet his brother at the door. His brother leaned in for a quick hug before finding his son.

"Really Blaine? How many Disney marathons do you need to have with my son?" Cooper asked, laughing and grabbing his sons stuff off of the smaller couch that they weren't sitting on.

"As many marathons as this little guy will allow." Blaine said, walking over and ruffling Charlie's curly hair, causing him to giggle.

They sat and talked for a little while, Cooper asking Blaine about their father and how he was treating him. Blaine asking Cooper how his talent scouting office was doing, and how Elizabeth was as well. Right before Cooper and Charlie were about to leave Cooper remembered something.

"Oh I met Eli's dad. Kurt, was it? He seemed pretty cool."

Blaine just nodded along to Cooper, placating him, and looking at Charlie with a wink, causing him to giggle about knowing something that his dad didn't know. Luckily Cooper didn't even notice their little interaction as he was already heading for the door. Charlie and Cooper each gave Blaine a hug before leaving, with Cooper thanking him again and Blaine urging him that it was no problem at all.

He noticed it was only 8:00 but he really had no other plans for the night, as usual, so he decided to get into the shower early and sit in his room on his laptop until he fell asleep. He put on his shower playlist and sang loudly in the shower, missing the feeling of being on stage at dalton in his younger years and loving every second of it.

Kurt put Elliot to bed at 8:00 and decided it was too early to go to bed himself, so he went into the living room and decided to distract himself with mindless reality television before feeling tired enough to sleep.

Just as he was sitting down he heard his phone go off next to him on the side table, he reached over to grab it and smirked when he saw who it was from.

 _Hey, it's Blaine, just wanted to text you to make sure you got my number also. - B_

Kurt knew that that wasn't the only reason Blaine texted him, he also knew that a part of him wanted to Blaine just as much as he wanted to talk to him, but a more overwhelming part of him, a part controlled by fear, told him to stay as far away as possible, to avoid being hurt again. He figured he should respond, but he wanted to keep it light, he didn't know what Blaine was expecting out of any of this, but he also knew that most guys never wanted to get involved with someone that has a kid, he figured Blaine was just looking for a hookup. At the same time though, from what he could pick up from Blaine, he didn't seem like the type of guy that did "hookups".

 _Hi Blaine, how was the rest of your night with Charlie? - K_

Kurt figured that was a safe enough way to respond.

 _It was good, we just sat on the couch and marathoned my Disney collection before Cooper came to pick him up, how about you and Eli? - B_

Kurt laughed out loud at that, so Blaine had a Disney collection? He was even more of a goof than he thought he was. Kurt found it more endearing than anything though.

 _Eli felt like being difficult tonight, so after dinner it took me like 30 minutes to get him to take a 10 minute shower, and then I just sang him to sleep a little while ago. - K_

Blaine didn't pick up on anything else about the text except for one little part of it.

 _You sing?_ Blaine knew that voice of his could sing, that beautiful high voice that Kurt had. One that he couldn't get out of his had for the last two day.

 _I dabble :P - K_

Blaine found himself more and more drawn to Kurt, just even through silly little text messages, he never connected with someone this fast.

 _Well I should hear you sing some time ;) - B_

 _Hmmm I doubt it. - K_

 _And why is that? - B_

 _I don't sing for people anymore - K_

Kurt didn't want to get into a sob story over text about how singing reminded him of the friends he left behind in Lima as soon as he left after high school, or the people he shut out when they just tried to help him. Especially Brittany, being so understanding about Kurt wanting to raise Eli on his own, but offering her to be as involved as she wanted to be in terms of seeing him. He shuddered at the memory of his old life and pushed it out of his mind for now.

 _Well maybe I'll take you to a karaoke bar for our first date? :P - B_

 _If you do that I'm leaving before the date starts - K_

 _*Gasp* you wouldn't - B_

Kurt laughed at how animated Blaine was even through his text messages, he could see him holding his hand to his chest in fake offense.

 _I would, but now, bedtime. Work in the morning. - K_

 _You're right, maybe I'll stop by for a coffee tomorrow on my way to the office, it couldn't hurt right? - B_

 _Hmm I might know somebody that could get you a discount. - K_

 _I thought you might. Gnight Kurt :P - B_

 _Night Blaine - K_

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Finally things are progressing between them! It was never really my intention to have their interactions be exactly like this, but it's just kinda how it popped into my head while writing it i guess. I know this chapter was a bit longer but i hope you guys don't mind, i just never really wanted to cut it off.**

 **FYI - The next chapter is going to be about a week in advance after this last interaction between them.**

 **As always, thank you guys all for the continued support, let me know what you think**

 **Ryder :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hiya people, so as of me writing this there is currently 770 views on this story… WHAT! :D thank you guys so much! The amount of people that are liking this story is crazy to me, and we are just in the beginning. I know my writing is a little slow and i'm sorry about that but that's just kind of how i get my thoughts out i guess.**

 **Ryder :D**

 **PS: This chapter takes place a week after the last one**

 **Also PSS: Trigger warning for homophobic language in this chapter, it only happens like once but i don't want anyone to be completely thrown off by it.**

 **PSSS: I hope you guys like the new title of the story :DD, also sorry about all the "PSSSS"s xD**

Blaine checked his phone for what felt like the fifth time that day, and it probably was. Figuring that since he hadn't heard of him for a week, he might as well just give up, but there was something about Kurt Hummel that was drawing Blaine to him. He hated that he couldn't figure out what it was.

Instead of dwelling on his unrequited crush for the rest of his work day, he decided to get some actual work done. He finished putting together their defense for their soonest case, a man was accused of killing his wife, but he was convinced that he did not do it. Of course, Blaine was stuck defending this psycho, something he found himself doing much more often than he wanted to.

His father always wanted to play dirty though, because his father always knew people. Blaine looked at every angle that he could possibly think of and could not find a way to prove this man innocent, instead he decided that their best course of action was to plea insanity and hope for a shorter jail sentence, or admittance to a mental institution. "Which anyone should go to for killing their wife." Blaine thought to himself while writing the proposal.

Just then his father came in, slamming the door shut and making Blaine jump in his seat.

"What do you have for our defense on the Michelson case? He's counting on us to get him out of this." His dad asked, moving around his office looking at it as if it was filth. He picked up the picture of Charlie that was on his desk, examining it and putting it back down.

"I don't think there is a defense, all of the evidence points towards Michelson killing his wife. The knife with his fingerprints on the handle and his wife's blood on edge, as well as no proof of forced entry from another person. Nothing was damaged and she was killed in their bed, there's no way that he gets out of this. I figure his and our best course of action is to plea insanity as if he didn't realize that he did it, and have him admitted to some mental institution, if he doesn't want that then he is going to have to plead guilty." Blaine explained, nervous about what his father was going to say.

"Of course you want to give up Blaine, you never can push through for fucking anything. I guess that makes sense… given your choices in life."

Blaine knew his dad was trying to make him angry, and he knew he thought his being gay was something by choice, something he just felt like doing to piss his father off. He also knew his father was just trying to get to him right now, because he knew Blaine was right but he never could admit it.

"Sorry, but that is the only way I see out of this, if you don't think my idea is the only way out then ask the opinion of everyone around the office and I guarantee most of them will give you the same thing I do."

Blaine's dad walked right up to his desk at that point and hit his hand on the front of it, scaring Blaine to his core.

"You will treat me with respect fag, don't pretend like you know more than me, i'm the one that runs this law firm. Don't forget it." He turned to walk away and as he was at the door he turned back around and looked at the back of the picture of Charlie on his desk. Without looking up at Blaine he smirked before saying,

"You better enjoy the time you have with that boy, because god knows you're not going to have one of your own."

Blaine looked down at his desk until he heard the door close and he let the pool of tears at his eyes finally escape. He turned his chair to look at the wall and cried his eyes out. Once he felt like he had no tears left, he wiped his eyes and blew his nose with tissue that he had in his desk drawer, packed up the things on his desk, and left the office early.

Instead of going down to the parking garage immediately, he decided to walk around the downtown area his office was located in. Almost all of his time was spent at home, at Coopers, or at the office. "No wonder I don't have any friends here", he thought to himself as he was walking down the street. As he walked he noticed all of the different people that seemed to reside in columbus. He saw couples, walking happily down the street, some with children some without. He saw people on their own walking hurriedly to get to somewhere they obviously needed to be, and people walking alone taking their time and enjoying the area around them. Some people like him, with earbuds in and simply enjoying their music.

A few minutes after walking he was across the street from the starbucks that he knew Kurt worked at. He checked his watch and saw that it was already 5:00, surely Kurt wasn't still at work right? He didn't want to look clingy by going in and seeing Kurt and making him think that he had to talk to him.

He took his chances at Kurt not being there and walked into the store. He got into the front door and saw no sign of Kurt, figuring he wasn't there, he walked up to the counter and asked the girl for a medium drip with room.

"You're Kurt's friend right?" The girl… Ashley, was it? Asked him.

He wasn't sure exactly what he was to Kurt,

"Something like that" He said, after paying and thanking her for the coffee. He went over to the condiment bar to put milk in his coffee and walked over to one of the tables in the corner of the small store. He brought his Harry Potter book out of his bag and started reading "The Sorcerer's Stone" For the millionth time in however many years he's been reading Harry Potter.

A while after he had arrived, his coffee was long gone, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up to see a blushing Kurt standing over him.

He took his earbuds out of his ear and gestured for Kurt to sit in the chair opposite him. Kurt told him he would be back in a moment and he saw him run into the back room. He then saw him talking to one of the girls behind the bar and then walked back over to Blaine.

"Sorry, I was just checking up on them to make sure they were good before I left." Kurt said, trying to not sound so eager to talk to Blaine.

"No problem." Blaine said, he closed himself off, how could Kurt not talk to him for a week and then expect him to be totally buddy buddy with him immediately upon seeing him? Even though Blaine couldn't stop looking at those beautiful light blue eyes and that tight long sleeve shirt. He shook himself out of his thoughts and just went back to reading his book, not offering anything to Kurt.

"I'm sorry I haven't returned any of your texts or calls." Kurt said, in almost a whisper. If Blaine had put even one of his earbuds back in, he wouldn't have heard Kurt say it.

Kurt inhaled deeply and continued to explain. "Eli's birth mother contacted me, just asking me how he's been, and it threw me off a lot. I spent a lot of time with him the last couple of days, or any time i could get in rather. I had to pick up some extra time and move some shifts around, one of my coworkers unexpectedly hurt himself. Some sort of a rugby accident or something, I have no idea."

Blaine felt his face turn up into a half smile at Kurt being so flustered, clearly he wasn't blowing Blaine off.

Kurt then leaned in, getting close enough to Blaine that Blaine could smell the scent of coffee mixed with hair spray and cologne. It was a weird mixture but one that Blaine immediately couldn't get enough of. At Kurt leaning in Blaine looked up, right into those amazing eyes of his.

"I really am sorry, I know I should have at least responded, but i'm really protective of Eli, but I do still really want to go out with you. If you give me the chance."

He said it so quietly, so afraid that Blaine was going to up and leave right away, it broke Blaine's heart. "How many people have left this beautiful man?"

"I still want to go out with you" Blaine said, blushing. Putting his foot down completely.

"I think I know where this question is going to get me, but do you want to go out.. Like right now? I'm free." He said, hoping on everything Kurt would just agree.

"I have to go pick up Eli right now." Kurt said, sounding genuinely disappointed.

"Of course, how did you forget he had a kid you moron" he thought to himself. As he was loathing himself for being angry at Kurt before, Kurt spoke up.

"What if I drove us to WES to pick up Eli, and treated you to dinner? I know it's not really like a first date, but it would give us time to talk I guess." Kurt said, hesitant. He hardly ever introduced guys he was dating to his son, in fact he had only done it once and that didn't turn out well. But to be fair, Blaine had technically already met Eli, and he wasn't totally turned off by the fact that Kurt had a kid. Which was a huge plus for Kurt.

Blaine's smirk turned into a full on grin. "I'd love to"

 **Hehhe cliffhangers are my favorite**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed! Let me know what you think**


	8. Chapter 8

**Well hello there! As of me writing this AN, we have hit exactly 1000 views! That's super awesome! I've only been posting this story for like less than a week and we are at 1k! Thank you so much to everyone who has read/reviewed/favorited/followed, i appreciate it so much. I know i thank you guys like all the time but tbh if nobody read the story, i wouldn't have as much fun writing it, so i hope you guys enjoy Kurt and Blaine's first sort of date**

 **Ryder :D**

The drive to pick up Eli was quiet at first, but when Katy Perry came on the stereo and Blaine started singing under his breath, it launched into a huge musical debate, lasting until they were walking up the ramp to pick up Eli.

As they walked into the portable, Kurt said

"I'm sorry Blaine, there is just no way Katy Perry is better than Gaga, I respect your opinion, but it's wrong." Kurt said, winking and then busting out laughing as he was signing Eli out.

Blaine shook his head,

"I'M sorry Kurt, but you are incorrect" Blaine said, providing his own wink and looking up to find Eli.

Kurt figured that since the kids were still allowed outside by now, seeing as it wasn't dark yet, that Eli would be outside. Kurt yelled to Jenny for confirmation,

"Jen!" He said, not feeling a complete need to be formal anymore with her, she perked up her head at the sound of her name. "Is Eli up on the field?". She nodded her head in confirmation and Kurt walked over to grab Eli's stuff out of his usual cubby.

"You're pretty well known aren't you Kurt?' Blaine said, confused at how comfortable Kurt was just walking around the room.

"Well Eli was here last year, and I plan on sending him here either until I get a different working schedule, or if not that, then all the way until he is in middle school. The people here are great though, so I have no reason yet to pull him out. Plus he's made a few friends."

"That's awesome!" Blaine said, "I wish this place existed when I was a kid, I hated going to my dad's office after school."

Kurt turned at that, "Did you grow up here?"

Blaine shook his head in response, also thinking the back of his mind at how easy it was to talk to Kurt, even if it was just about trivial things like this,

"Nah, my family has been in Ohio for years, but we used to live in westerville."

"Westerville…" Kurt said, thinking. They left the portable to walk up and find Eli, assuming he was on the field.

"What about it?" Blaine asked, wondering if he hit a sore spot.

"I just remember a school around there, can't remember the name of it." Kurt had Eli's backpack on his shoulder as they were walking up and Blaine found it the most adorable thing he had ever seen, a grown man walking around with a spiderman backpack had something about it that was hilarious.

"Dalton Academy?" Blaine asked, pride seeping in about his old school.

"That's the one!" Kurt exclaimed, remembering why he knew the name of that school. "I went up against them in show choir, their lead singer was incredible. He was pretty cute too if I remember correctly."

Blaine blushed and started giggling, the giggling turning into full on laughing. Kurt looked over like he was insane.

"What's funny? He was cute!" Kurt said, face turning scarlet red.

They got to the top of the ramp and Kurt looked right at the grass field, assuming that's where their son was.

"Well thank you Kurt." Blaine said through giggles.

"What are you talking about?" Kurt questioned, pointing to the field when he spotted his son.

"I said thank you" Blaine said, calming himself down.

"Thank you for what?" Kurt asked, getting slightly annoyed.

"Eli!" Kurt yelled down the field, making Blaine jump. "Sorry" Kurt whispered, laughing at Blaine.

"Thank you for calling me cute." Blaine said, still feeling like his ears were ringing.

At that point Eli made it to Kurt and started hugging him.

"Hey buddy how was your day?"

"It was good, how was yours?" Eli responded. Blaine took note of how polite he was, obviously he was Kurt's son.

"It was great, we're gonna go have dinner with Blaine, are you alright with that?"

Eli shrugged at that, "Sure. Where we going?"

Kurt smirked and poked his son on the side, "Our favorite place!"

Eli jumped up and down at that "Yay!"

Kurt gave his son his backpack and held his hand out for him to take, letting Blaine and Kurt finish their conversation.

"So when did I call you cute? I mean not that you aren't, but…" Kurt said, feeling his face blush again.

"Well you said that the lead singer of the Warblers was cute so…" Blaine said, hoping he would get it this time.

"Oh my gosh! You were on the warblers! That's why I recognized you!" Kurt said, putting his free hand on his mouth and laughing.

"That would be correct" Blaine said, feeling himself blush.

"Oh my god! You were the lead singer for Raise Your Glass! You guys killed that song!" Kurt started laughing again.

"Well thank you, I seem to remember you guys nailing Valerie! That girl was incredible!"

Eli looked up, curious about what they were getting so excited about, but he was happy to see his dad so happy.

They made it out of the school grounds and were arriving at the parking lot.

"Yeah, that was Santana, she has one of the best voices I've ever heard, I miss her."

"Did you guys have a falling out?"

"I kind of cut everyone out but my dad, step brother, and step mother, once I left Lima. I don't think anyone else would take me back after shutting them out for 6 years. As much as I'd love to see them again."

Blaine felt so bad for Kurt after hearing that, did he not have many friends here either? He was friendly with his coworkers and the people at the school, but how many people did he have that he could really talk to?

"I wouldn't say that yet, if you guys were as close as you say you were, I think it's always worth the shot to get them back into your life."

"Well not everyone keeps their friends after high school" Kurt said, climbing into the car. Not trying to let the disappointment seep into his voice.

Blaine let the obvious tension Kurt felt go away and decided to change the subject.

"So, do you want to tell me anything about this 'favorite place of yours?'", Blaine said, turning back to Eli, figuring he would be more likely to tell him than Kurt would.

"It's so good! They have the best burgers! Even though daddy says that burgers are gross and he just gets salad."

Blaine looked mock offended at Kurt, "Burgers are gross? Excuse me Kurt? Did I just hear that?"

Kurt just laughed, something he found himself doing a lot more when Blaine was around. "I think burgers are good but they are so filled with carbs that I can't risk it, plus, salad is good too." He said, looking at Eli through the rearview mirror pointedly at Eli during the last part.

Eli just shrunk back in his seat at that, disgusted at even the idea of salad being good. When they pulled up to a red light, Blaine leaned over to Kurt and whispered in his ear,

"Yeah right, like you even need to worry about your body."

Kurt coughed at that, not expecting him to say anything like that with his child in the car, he started blushing again and said nothing, but feeling a smile creep onto his face at the compliment.

Blaine just laughed at Kurt's discomfort at being flirted with with his son in the car and leaned back in his chair, unable to keep his eyes off of him.

Kurt just looked over, seemingly unaware that his son was still in the car,

"Why are you staring at me?" Kurt asked, his voice getting higher the more they talked and the more he blushed.

"Because you're nice to stare at", Blaine whispered back, doing his best for Eli not to hear him. He turned around and looked to see if Eli was paying attention, happy to see him focused on trying to read while in the car.

Kurt just waved his hand trying to blush the compliment off.

"I'm serious" Blaine said, not the least bit embarrassed at saying how gorgeous Kurt was.

They pulled out in front of a small hole in the wall diner. " _This is their favorite place? Really? It looks like it hasn't been open for years."_

When they walked in Blaine couldn't have found himself more wrong, the whole diner was roomy with a huge back room added onto it, not visible from the outside. There were arcade machines on the wall to the right of the entrance, directly forward was a cashier and behind it you could see stoves, to the left of the entrance was a long line of booths connected to the wall, and scouted around the middle of the floor were wooden tables and chairs with cushions on them. Every table had a checkered red and white cloth, and the floors were tiled.

They walked up to order and the woman at the register seemed to recognize Kurt and Eli considering she repeated their order to them before they got to order themselves. Kurt laughed when she said their order and then sent Eli to go get them a table with the number and the cups for their drinks. Blaine looked at the menu, overwhelmed at all of the options. The woman, Emily, according to her nametag, looked at Kurt questioningly at seeing another person in their little group. She winked at Kurt before prompting Blaine for his order.

"Uhh, do you have any suggestions?" Blaine asked, feeling stupid for not being able to decide what to order, this place was a lot different than the places his parents took him to.

"The BLT is really good, I like it with mayo on it too, they serve it with the best french fries you've ever had too." Emily said, smiling.

"I'll take that then, that sounds great." Blaine said, pulling out his wallet to pay.

Kurt pushed his hand away but Blaine insisted.

"You gave me free coffee, I buy you dinner, plus you drove. Don't worry about it, you can get it next time." Blaine finished saying with a wink, really hoping that there would be a next time.

Kurt blushed and said his thanks before finding his son.

Blaine handed Emily his card and signed the receipt. She handed him his cup and before he could turn to find Kurt she said,

"Kurt's a cute one, I wouldn't lose him too easily if I were you." She said with a wink, laughing. Blaine nodded his agreement before thanking her again and walking away. Amazed at someone not being totally homophobic. Most people he came into contact to were disgusted at the idea of people being gay. That being said, most people he was in contact with were people at the law firm. " _I really do need to get out more…"_ Blaine thought to himself, as he was pouring himself a coke from the soda machine.

Blaine walked over to find Eli and Kurt coloring on the children's menu and playing Tic Tac Toe, something he assumed they did every time they came here. He couldn't figure out how Kurt could keep on getting cuter, but here he was doing it again.

Blaine sat down across from them smiling, when Kurt's phone began to wring.

"Sorry, I think this is work, just give me one second."

Kurt picked Eli up and set him on his lap for him to climb over him and then scooted out of the booth to walk outside and take his phone call.

Blaine wasn't exactly sure how to talk to Eli, he only knew that he was friends with Charlie and that he was extremely energetic. He guessed he could get on his good side the same way you could with any other 6 year old boy, with video games. Blaine fished some quarters out of his pocket and motioned to Eli at the arcade machines,

"Wanna go play some games while we wait for your dad to get back?"

Eli nodded his agreement and started jumping out of the seat before Blaine could even put his wallet back in his pocket. Eli ran straight towards the asteroids machine.

"Ah so you're a classic kind of guy aren't you? I love it." Blaine said, laughing as Eli was getting ready to play.

Blaine slipped the quarters in and watched the kid go, complete concentration on his face. He was stunned to see that Eli was actually really good, he expected him to die right away, but he lasted all the way until Kurt came back from his call. All on one life.

Kurt walked up behind them and laughed, poking Blaine in the side.

"You shouldn't have gotten him started," he said, smile evident on his face at his son enjoying himself. "He won't get off until the food comes, guarantee he survives that long." Blaine nodded along, overwhelmed by the close proximity of Kurt, he was able to smell his strong coffee scent again and he loved it. The smell of coffee mixed with something that was just… Kurt, he couldn't explain it to anyone if they asked, but he loved it.

Kurt spoke up again, dubious to Blaine's turmoil, "Sorry about that by the way, someone just called from work."

"Good call or bad call?" He asked, turning his head.

"Fantastic call, one of my employees dislocated their shoulder or something, so I've been picking up extra time at the store to cover parts of their shifts, but now they are finally good to go and they can come back to work. Which means no more 10 hour days for this guy."

Blaine whistled at that, "Jeez, 10 hours of constantly talking to people? That sounds exhausting!"

"It can be, trust me. But when I have the right team i'm sometimes able to just go into the back room and decompress for a few minutes, and since i'm the manager they can't get mad, I just tell them i have to work on some stuff and to call me if they need me. I only do that in the afternoons though, i would never do that to them during the morning."  
Blaine loved how much Kurt loved his job, It was refreshing for someone to hear someone talk about work in a positive way, he could only find his job as a pain in the ass. At least he could be happy for Kurt.

"So you like working at starbucks? How long have you been there?"

"I think in August it will be like… 7 years?"

"Wow! So that means you've been with them since you were.."

"16" Kurt finished, blushing at how young he was.

"Wait you're only 23? But you have a 6 year old son. Wait and he's…"

"It's a conversation for another day, please." Kurt said, pleading.

Blaine could see the immediate pain in Kurt's eyes and nodded his head in understanding, but still confused out of his mind at the whole situation, not ever taking a second to think about it.

They walked over to the pickup stand when their number was called and brought their food back to their booth. The rest of the "date" went by with easy conversation, not leaning into too personal but letting each other learn more about the other.

The ride back to Blaine's office was the same as it was on the way to pick up Eli. Both men being surprised at how easy conversation was between them, neither being able to remember a time where it was so easy to be with another person.

Eli fell asleep in the backseat barely listening to Blaine and Kurt talk, and being exhausted after running around all day. Kurt looked at him sleeping in the rearview mirror and smiled, as they were pulling up to the front of Blaine's office building. Kurt never realized that it was so close to his store, he decided to put that in the back of his mind for future reference. Blaine took another risk and kissed Kurt on the cheek before leaving the car,

"I hope I see you again, sometime soon." Blaine said, winking and hopping out of the passenger's seat.

Kurt's eyes followed Blaine all the way until he was out of sight, catching his eyes when he looked back at him and gave him a half wave before slipping completely out of view.

Kurt caught his breath for a moment in the driver's seat before turning the car around and heading home, hoping he would not make the same mistake he did last time, and answer Blaine as soon as he texted him, or text him first.

 **Before anyone mentions it, I know that "Raise Your Glass" was performed technically by both Kurt and Blaine, but. 1) The original song came on while i was writing this and I immediately thought of their glee cover and how amazing it was. 2) I don't care, it's an AU.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, i'm going to try to keep the longer chapters coming.**

 **Ryder :D**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi hi, I don't really have anything to say except that we've hit 1.6k views! WOO! That's awesome! Okay bye, also this chapter starts a few days after the last one, just an FYI.**

 **Ryder :D**

"Eli! Let's go I have to drop you off at the morning care before school." Kurt called to his son, getting ready to leave. He decided to be a little more stylish with his outfit. He stayed in dress code but added a little bit too it, his skinny jeans were a little tighter, and his shirt was buttoned up. Just on the off chance that he ran into Blaine. Even though he had been trying this for the last few days, it didn't hurt to try, right?

"Dadddyy" Eli whined, "I don't like going to the morning one, Mike is never there and he's my favorite, and Jenny is only sometimes theree."

Kurt's heart twisted at hearing his son upset, even if it wasn't over something that was a very big deal even if it was the third time he had heard the same whine since last night when he told him initially. But Kurt knelt down to him to fix his collar and speak,

"I know you don't like going to the morning buddy, I don't like having you go either, I prefer to get as many hugs in as I can before I go to work." Kurt ruffled his hair at that, causing him to giggle and squirm a little bit. "But I have to work on some stuff in the back so I'm going early, do you know what that means though?"

Eli shook his head, not knowing what his dead was going on.

"It means that I get to leave early, and that I might be able to take my favorite person in the world out for ice cream."

Eli jumped up and down at that, "Ice cream before dinner?", he practically screamed.

Kurt nodded his head and laughed as his son wrapped him in a big hug, He didn't like giving him ice cream period, but he had been so good during their time with Blaine and he was going somewhere he didn't want to go, Kurt figured he could baby him a little bit.

They got into the car promptly at 7:00 so that he could bring Eli to school. Kurt had been itching to ask Eli for a few days though, and he figured now was as good of a time as any,

"E" he called to Eli in the back seat, seemingly staring into space out the window.

The little boy turned his head at the sound of his name and looked at his dad in the rearview mirror. Kurt took that as enough of a sign that he was listening and continued,

"What did you think of Blaine? The guy we went for dinner with a couple of days ago."

"He was really cool!" His son said enthusiastically, making Kurt smile and tally a mental point for Blaine.

"Anything in particular about him that made him 'cool'?" Kurt asked.

"He playded video games with me, and he listened when I talked to him about stuff at school and stuff." Eli replied.

"Played" Kurt said, trying to make sure he corrected him whenever he could, even if he was quite good at grammar at such a young age.

"Right, sorry dad."

"It's okay, but I'm glad you liked him, we might be seeing more of him."

"Yay! Can we go back to Finnigan's with him? I wanna show him how good I am at Asteroids again!"

"Sure buddy, I'll let him know and maybe all three of us will go again soon."

"Yayyy!" He said, practically bouncing in his seat as Kurt pulled into the parking lot of WES.

They walked up to the After-School program that was also before school, and Kurt talked to Jenny for a few minutes, trying to catch up while Eli got used to being there so early again. There was only a few other kids, none of which he was really friends with.

"Keep an eye on him this morning will ya? He loves being here in the afternoon but it's something about being here in the morning that really bothers him."

Jenny nodded, promising she would. At that, Kurt bent down to give his son a final hug. Not without Eli reminding him that he promised to get ice cream after school, though. Kurt pulled himself out of Eli's arms and walked out of the portable, feeling a pang of guilt for making his son upset without entirely knowing why. Sure he knew that he didn't like being there in the morning, but he didn't know why.

He thought about it on the way to work and then let himself get distracted by everything his store had to offer him. It was tuesday, which meant that they had just gotten their large order of supplies in the night before, and that it had been waiting for the openers when they arrived. Kurt walked in at 7:30, doing his usual run through of greetings to everyone, but missing the curly haired man sitting in the corner of the store nursing a cup of coffee, bagged eyes and light stubble on his cheeks and chin. Kurt went up to the register to order his grande nonfat mocha to take into the back with him and disappeared.

Blaine had looked up when he heard Kurt enter and say hello to his fellow coworkers, he tried willing Kurt to look over, but obviously he couldn't. _He probably forgot about you again, you idiot. Now you're just sitting in his store like a stalker. Dad's right you're just a disappointment._

Kurt didn't bother putting his apron on seeing as he was going to walk over to their storage room to take an inventory count right away. He grabbed his mocha from the end of the bar and thanked Shawn, his newest barista, for his mocha. Making sure to mention that it was perfect. He turned around to see a very familiar set of hair.

"Blaine?" He said, hoping that it was him, but confused as to why he was slightly hunched over, and why he was leaving.

Blaine turned at the mention of his name, and Kurt could see the tiredness in his eyes. He knew something was wrong, even though they had only gone out once, and that wasn't even a real date, he knew something was wrong. He could feel it.

Blaine gave a slight smile as he saw Kurt walking over, and realized how awful he probably looked. He knew he was in his suit and his hair was gelled, but he felt awful, and something told him Kurt would notice.

Kurt motioned for them to sit down, picking the table in the corner that Blaine had just vacated. Blaine laughed in his head at the irony in that, and then sat down opposite Kurt. When he sat down, Kurt put his hand on his,

"Are you okay?"

Blaine looked in Kurt's eyes, a sight he knew he would never be able to forget, and willed away his tears by blinking.

"Yeah, i'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Well for starters, even though it's really hot," Kurt said, blushing. "You haven't shaved, probably since the last time we saw each other, and I know you weren't doing that for my sake, because you're a lawyer."

Blaine took a mental note that Kurt found his stubble hot, and then pushed it to the side. "What, so just since I forgot to shave means i'm not doing okay?" Blaine asked, turning his head to the side, he knew Kurt was right, but he didn't want to admit that his dad finally was bringing him down.

"Well, I also know that you usually don't work till about... 8:00 if I remember correctly, you also have a cup of coffee still." Kurt said, then touching his cup of coffee. "Your cup of coffee is also cold, and almost empty. Meaning you've been here for a while. Your bag isn't with you, so that means that you don't have anything work related on you, meaning you've either been sitting here staring into space for the last probably hour or so, or you've been twiddling with your phone." he said, motioning for Blaine to hand him his phone, he obliged. "Which still has 90% battery." He finished.

Blaine just sat back, mouth open. "Wow", he said, stunned at how perceptive Kurt was. "You know, if your career as a manager falls out, you would kill it as a detective."

Kurt laughed at that, "Hardly. I'm just perceptive to people I care about."

Blaine's stomach did a little flip at that, he knew he had feelings for Kurt, but this all just escalated them so much. He felt himself blushing, but he couldn't care, Kurt just made his morning much better.

"You know you look like you have some stuff to do yourself," Blaine said, motioning to Kurt's papers to count the order. "I should let you go", but just as he was getting out of his chair, Kurt spoke up.

"You could come to the storage with me, if you don't have anywhere else to be right now. It's quiet and I just have to count inventory, but we can talk." Kurt said it again with his head down, looking at his hands, obviously nervous.

Blaine couldn't figure out how Kurt was so many people at once. At one time he was the confident manager saying hello to everyone in the store, then he was the confident man, analyzing someone "he cared about", and then he was this tentative man who was afraid to ask for things. Blaine couldn't wrap his head around it but he knew he wanted to learn about every side of Kurt Hummel.

"Sure, I don't have to be at work till 8:30 today, so I have some time." Blaine said smiling, and holding out his hand for Kurt to take.

Kurt took it without question and let himself be helped up, they walked out of the store and down to storage, not hand in hand, but right next to each other. Kurt turned to the keys as Blaine watched from behind, not expecting the storage space to be so small.

"I know it's small, but it works for what we need at least. They won't let us make any renovations to it, so I organize everything in here to the best of my abilities." Kurt said, practically reading Blaine's mind.

As Kurt started moving boxes around, he asked Blaine for his help when something was slightly too heavy, which Blaine obliged. About a half hour in, Blaine was leaning on the wall, letting Kurt work, when he spoke up after a few minutes silence.

"You're staring again." Kurt said, laughing.

"Well like I said before, you're nice to stare at." He felt himself blushing at the light flirting, but he couldn't help it.

Kurt walked right up to him, and leaned in like he was going to kiss him, but asked him a question instead,

"So, you gonna tell me whats wrong? Don't think I can't tell. You're even quieter than the last few times we've seen each other." Kurt said, whispering right in front of Blaine, pulling away when he didn't respond.

"It's my dad…" Blaine whispered. Kurt turned around at that and saw Blaine wiping away a few tears.

Kurt walked back up to him, stopping a few steps away, and held his hands out for a hug. Blaine walked into him almost instantly, feeling better just by standing in Kurt's embrace. They didn't know how long they stood there for, but Blaine told him everything. He told him about how his parents barely talked to him, and when his dad did talk to him it was always ridicule, and Kurt couldn't feel worse for him.

Kurt kept on soothing him as much as he could, rubbing his hand up and down on his back trying to calm him down. Blaine didn't cry much during their talk, but when he calmed himself down, he pulled out of Kurt's embrace, feeling embarrassed at breaking down in front of someone he had barely gone on a date with.

"Sorry, I usually have my emotions in check, my dad just got to me yesterday."

"No need to apologize, I'm sorry he puts you through so much shit, it's not fair. I couldn't imagine my dad doing that."

"Your dad is okay with you being gay?" Blaine asked, unaware that such a situation could exist.

"Well I mean he was a bit weirded out the first time I brought a guy home, but when I came out to him initially he said that my mother and him knew when I was three, so it didn't come as a shock to him when I came out, and Carole has always been great, I never had to worry about her response."

"You call your mom by her first name?"

It took Kurt a second to realize what he was talking about,

"Oh no. Carole is my step mom, my mother died when I was young, Carole is my step mom as of my sophomore year in high school, and my step brother Finn, is her son." Kurt said, clarifying.

Blaine nodded his head in understanding. Knowing that saying 'sorry' for his mom wouldn't change anything. He had a feeling Kurt felt the same way, probably hearing it every time it was mentioned since he was a kid.

There was an awkward silence for a few minutes after that, leaving Kurt to finish organizing the order, and Blaine feeling a bit better than he had before. Before he knew it his alarm went off signaling that he had to be at work soon.

"Sorry, I have to get going, I don't want to be late. Can we see each other again soon though? I want to take you on a proper date."

Kurt turned and smiled at that,

"I would really love that, are you free tonight?"

"What about Eli?" Blaine asked, hoping he hadn't forgotten about his son.

"Well I am picking him up early from school since I get off early, then we are getting ice cream together, but I can call Ashley to see if she can take care of him, she loves him, she's sorta my emergency babysitter."

"That sounds great then." Blaine said, happy that Kurt wanted to go out with him."

"Consider it an almost date," Kurt said winking. "I'll call her when i'm done with this, and then I'll text you and let you know if we're on."

"I can't wait." Blaine said, walking out of the storage room. Feeling monumentally better than he did when he woke up that morning.

 **Hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter! Also just a quick side note, to the people that came here or were fans of my last story, "It's Just a Crush, Right?" I was reading through the last chapter of it and realized again how much I enjoyed writing that story, and realized how sad I was when I never got to finish it, so if I get the time i'm going to try to update that story too, I feel bad for abandoning it. And to any new viewers that would want to read it it's on my profile. I'm not going to be updating it as regularly as this one, since i kinda want this one to be my main story, but yeah.**

 **Sorry for the long AN,**

 **Ryder :D**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey so you guys know how i mentioned that i was going to try and bring back IJACR? Well yea so i've decided that i'm going to keep this my main story, while uploading IJACR when i can, and then when i finish this story, I will go back to IJACR. I can't thank you guys enough for the amount of crazy support i've gotten on this story. Much love**

 **As always i hope you enjoy, let me know what you think**

 ***Just a heads up this story starts with their date the same night as the last chapter, also there is some use of homophobic language…(Guess who'se back)**

 **Ryder :D**

Kurt looked through his closet, trying to find the perfect outfit for his date with Blaine. He knew that Blaine probably didn't care about whether or not his outfit was perfect, but it had been a long time since Kurt had seen himself so genuinely excited for a date. He decided that he could settle with a pair of tight black skinny jeans, that went perfectly with a long black button up and a gray vest over it. He looked in the mirror and styled his hair perfectly. Making sure not a strand was out of place. When he walked back out into the living room he got a not so subtle whistle from Ashley and an unnoticing son. The latter he was highly grateful for.

On the other end, Blaine was having the same struggle, all he owned was suits, and he wanted to show Kurt that he wasn't just some snooty lawyer who only wore suits all the time, he wanted to show Kurt as much of the real him as he could. Which is why he was so happy that Kurt let him take lead on the date. As he was settling on his outfit of a two piece black suit with his favorite polka dot bowtie, he heard his phone buzz from his bed. It was a text from his brother,

" _Have fun on your date baby brother! You deserve this." - C_

" _Thanks Coop, how're Charlie and Liz doing?" - B_

" _They're good, C misses you and Liz is just as busy as ever, but she misses you too. Dinner this weekend?" - C_

" _That sounds great, maybe this time I'll bring a guest." - B_

" _This guy makes you happier than i've seen you be in a while and you haven't even been on your first date yet, he's welcome any time." - C_

" _Thanks Coop, ima go. Tell Charlie I say good night and that i love him." - B_

" _Will do baby bro, gnight." - C_

Cooper walked into the living room to find his wife on the couch reading a magazine, relaxing as best as she could after her stressful work day.

"Hey babe, how was work?"

She looked up at the sound of her husband's voice and smiles as she saw him. He walked up to the couch and she scooted over so that he could hop on and cuddle her from behind, laying his head on her shoulder while she read.

He nuzzled her cheek and just enjoyed the peace, which they didn't get a lot of.

"Blaine's going on his date tonight with Kurt." Cooper spoke up

"Fucking finally.", Liz said, making Cooper laugh into her shoulder.

"That's what I said when he told me this afternoon on the phone, I swear he's more excited than when he was on christmas when we were 12." Cooper retorted, chuckling to himself at the image of himself and a much younger Blaine.

"Did you say goodnight to Charlie?" She asked, looking up at him.

"I haven't yet, but I was right about to, I just wanted to give you a kiss first."

She leaned her head over to him and offered him a quick kiss. A quick kiss that turned into more, and would have turned even more heated if they didn't remember that they had a child a few doors down, who needed to go to bed. They both laughed knowing that they couldn't let it get as far as they wanted it to, and Cooper got up from behind his wife to go tuck his son goodnight.

When he walked in he saw his son reading "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"

"How many times have you read that book since Uncle Blaine bought it for you?"

Charlie looked up at the sound of his father's voice and put the book down, leaving it on the nightstand.

"I haven't actually finished it yet, whenever Uncle B comes over we read a little bit, i'm just trying to get as ahead as I can, but it's pretty hard."

"That's okay buddy, it's a huge book, that's why Uncle Blaine bought it for you though, it's something you two can do together."

"Where is Uncle Blaine? I haven't seen him for like a week."

"He's been busy buddy, with work and with other stuff."

"What other stuff?", Cooper laughed at his sons noseyness.

"Personal stuff."

"What personal stuff?, Continuing to find it funny, but also knowing it was a never ending battle, Cooper decided to end it before he was there all night with 'because' and 'because why?' or 'because why not?'.

"Don't worry about it buddy, just go to bed."

Charlie compiled and layed back fully in his bed for his dad to tuck him in. Cooper leant over and kissed his son on the forehead before turning the lights off and closing the door, allowing him to sleep.

Blaine checked his pockets twice before he left his apartment. "Keys and wallet in the left, Phone in the right. Check." he said to himself, before locking the door to his apartment and heading to the parking garage in his building. He got in his car and realized that he never got flowers. Would flowers be too much? Would Kurt think it was stupid for him to get him flowers? Would Kurt love it? Would it be way too cliche?

Blaine decided to just go for the flowers, figuring it couldn't hurt. He went to the florist and picked out a bouquet of red roses. 16 red roses to be exact, one for each day he had known Kurt for. He knew Kurt would probably not notice it, but he loved it as a gesture in itself, and if Kurt noticed, that was huge bonus points for Blaine. He pulled up to the address that Kurt texted him, flowers in hand, and rang the doorbell. What he saw on the other side was the most gorgeous version of Kurt he had ever seen.

Fifteen minutes before Blaine was supposed to pick him up, Kurt found himself running around his apartment trying to find his wallet. Ashley was able to babysit and her and Eli were in the kitchen playing some board game at the table. Kurt walked into the room and Ashley said without looking up,

"Did you check the table right next to the door?"

Kurt walked over and found his wallet, sitting where he left it when he walked into the apartment earlier with Eli.

"Thanks Ash!" he yelled from the doorway.

"No problem Kurtie!" She yelled back, laughing.

He walked back into the kitchen at that and pointed a fake accusatory finger at her.

"Hey! You may be my friend but i'm also your boss." He said it with a wink for her to know he was kidding.

"You got it boss, sorry boss, will do boss." She said, making Eli laugh.

Kurt walked over and sat next to Eli, when he sat down Eli immediately crawled into Kurt's lap. Right then Kurt wanted to just ditch Blaine and sit with Eli for the rest of the night. Obviously he wouldn't do that, but it was pretty tempting.

"Remember what I said buddy, in bed by 8:30, be good for Ashley, and I will be home probably after you're asleep, but I will come in your room and kiss you goodnight, okay?"

"I remember daddy."

Kurt looked up at Ashley then,

"If you need anything you have my cell, there's snacks and drinks in the fridge, help yourself. I'll be home later..-"

Before he could finish rambling his usual spiel, Ashley cut him off,

"Kurt, you've said this same speech every time i've watched this little guy, don't worry about it. We have fun, don't we Eli."  
Eli nodded his head in Kurt's lap at that, and Kurt laughed, leaning his chin on the top of his son's head, holding him close. They sat there for a few minutes, Kurt just enjoying being there, when his doorbell rang. He was expecting to just walk down to the car and meet Blaine, but when he opened the door a huge smile crept its way onto his face.

Blaine was standing there, a bouquet of roses, a nervous half smile, and there were those gorgeous hazel eyes staring back at him. He had decided on changing his outfit last minute and was wearing a leather jacket, with a smooth white t-shirt underneath, and blue jeans. Kurt froze for a second before realizing that Blaine was just standing out front of his apartment and lead him in. Kurt took the flowers from Blaine and found a vase to put them in, thanking him and blushing the whole time.

Blaine walked around. Looking at the pictures on the walls and the homey atmosphere the whole apartment had, much more welcoming than his dreary apartment with barely any life ever in it.

Blaine turned a random corner and found Eli and… Ashley? Right? Sitting and playing Candyland on the kitchen table.

"Hey! I loved candyland as a kid." Blaine said, catching the attention of both Elliot and Ashley.

"Hi Blaine!" Eli said, obviously very happy to see him.

"Hey again kiddo, how are you?" Blaine walked over and sat down next to him, offering him a high five, which he eagerly took.

"Ow!" Blaine said, pulling his hand away like it was stung, making Eli and Ashley laugh.

"So Blaine, you'll be good to Kurt, I'm correct in the assumption, yes?"

"I really will try to be. Ashley? Was it?"

"Ahh I figure we haven't been properly introduced," she said, sticking out her hand. "Ashley Montalvo, Shift manager at the starbucks your lover boy works at, head babysitter to the cutest boy in the known universe, and friend to Kurt Hummel."

Blaine laughed at her monologue/introduction and held his hand out to shake hers.

"Pleasure to meet you Ashley."

"Same to you Blaine." She said with a wink, nodding her head up behind Blaine.

Blaine turned around and saw Kurt with his hands held together in the front of his body, obviously nervous. Blaine got up and put a hand on his then kissed his cheek, hopefully calming any nerves.

Ashley squealed in her seat, causing Blaine and Kurt to laugh, effectively subduing any nerves Kurt, and Blaine for that matter, had. They walked out of the apartment yelling their goodbyes. Blaine walked around the car to open Kurt's door before going to the drivers side and climbing in.

"Ahh that Dalton Academy gentlemanliness coming through huh?"

"Hmm I like to think I would be doing that whether or not I went to Dalton."

"How was dalton?"

At that question the entire car ride to the restaurant launched into them talking about their good times, and not so good times in high school. Kurt left out everything about Karofsky, not wanting to scare Blaine off very easily, and he didn't want to tell him just yet about exactly how Eli came to be. He really liked Blaine, but only so many people know so much about Kurt Hummel. The only people that know a lot about him anymore are his dad, Carole, and Finn.

It's hard to trust people so easily after so many years of ridicule.

They arrived at the restaurant, which Kurt was pleased to see was a nice quaint italian restaurant pretty close to downtown Columbus. He had always wanted to go here, but it wasn't really the place to take a 6 year old, nor was it somewhere to really go alone.

Blaine walked up to the maitre d,

"Hi!" He said, flashing the nicest smile he could, "Would you happen to have a table ready for two under Anderson?" The man looked down at his sheet and nodded. He looked up and smiled,

"Right this way." He lead them to their table, in a nice corner booth of the restaurant, which was perfect for Kurt. He got payed to talk to people, being around the one man he wanted to see was more than enough for the night.

They fell into a comfortable silence as they both looked over their menus. Kurt kept on looking up at Blaine, only every time he looked up Blaine was looking at him. They both felt like high schoolers on their first date, afraid to admit how cute the other one was. The waitress came over and took their order, Blaine having the Fettucini Alfredo, and Kurt having the Ravioli. Kurt got a diet coke, not wanting to drink on account of having a child at home, and Blaine just kept a water, being the driver.

"Wow look at how exciting we are with our cokes and waters, huh?" Kurt said, laughing as the waiter was leaving after bringing them their drinks.

Blaine laughed along with him, "Ahh yes quite the pair, I hope this party doesn't get too crazy."

Kurt leaned in and spoke in a low tone, "I wish it could." he said, pulling away with a wink. He wanted to see what effect he had on Blaine, and based off of the pulling of his bowtie and the moving of his legs under his seat, he figured he had the desired effect.

They fell into comfortable talk about work, their past, their family, and Kurt found himself loving everything there was to love about Blaine Anderson. The way he cared about his family above basically everything else, usually himself. They way he quoted Disney at every chance he got, which already came up twice in their dinner alone. His cute stubble that he was glad he hadn't gotten rid of, his obvious sense in style, even when he wasn't at work, and especially, his eyes. There was something about looking into them that Kurt found fascinating. Just looking at him he could see so much pain, pain that he wanted to reconcile so badly but didn't know how. Pain that he knew was there but never wanted to admit himself, so he just hid it with a smile.

As Kurt was listening to Blaine talk animatedly again about his time at Harvard, he heard a scoff to his right. When he turned he saw a tall man who looked like an older version of Blaine without the curly hair. They had some of the same facial features but his were just… older. Kurt hoped that this was just a really amazing coincidence and that this guy wasn't the homophobic father that Blaine was freaking out about earlier in his storage room.

"Blaine.." he said, voice already threatening.

"What are you doing here dad?" Blaine asked, not even looking up to make eye contact with his father.

"Some friends of mine and I wanted to grab dinner, we didn't know they let fags in here too." his dad said, chuckling.

"Dad, just leave." Blaine said, close to tears, not wanting to look awful in front of Kurt, assuming that his dad made a bad enough first impression to send Kurt running, effectively destroying what they had before they even figured out what it was.

"Ah come on Blaine, I thought you would have grown out of this phase a while ago." His father said, mockingly.

At that point Kurt couldn't keep quiet anymore.

"Mr. Anderson, your son and I were actually having a pretty fantastic first date, before some prick came and decided to ruin it. Now if you don't mind, do you think we could get back to it? Your son asked you to leave, how about you do that."

Not used to being talked back to, and not having a good enough comeback. He stormed away to meet up with his friends on the other side of the restaurant.

Kurt let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and immediately felt horrible.

"I'm so so so so sorry, I can't believe I said that, that wasn't my place. Just the things he was saying were so awful. I couldn't let him just stand there and say that, I dealt with enough of that shit in high school. I don't need it in my adulthood too."

Blaine looked up at that, after successfully willing away all tears he had.

"You're sorry? That was the best thing i've ever seen, you just told him off like it was nothing."

Kurt looked across at Blaine to see him with a half smile on his face, holding his hand out for Kurt to take. Kurt reached across the table and took it, squeezing. When Blaine returned the squeeze Kurt signaled for the waiter to bring them their check.

They left the restaurant giggling at the disgusted face Blaine's father sent them, not caring about a thing in the world. Kurt took lead and showed Blaine to a park that was nearby. It was only a ten minute walk, and they enjoyed the cool night air as they strolled through Columbus, arms linked. They sat down on a bench together, looking out at a night sky full of stars. They moved their connection from arms linked to holding hands, Kurt took note at the roughness of Blaine's hands but at the same time the softness, he loved the feeling of his hand in Blaine's. He knew he wouldn't get enough of it.

Disrupting his train of thought, Blaine turned and touched Kurt's cheek, moving is face to meet Blaine's. Blaine leaned in for a kiss, giving Kurt time to pull away if he wanted to, but there was no way in hell he didn't want to. This was so much better than their not kisses and their kisses on the cheeks, it was better than the hand holding, and the hugging. This was something so much more. It was like all of the tension of the last two weeks was gone, with Kurt going awol, and Blaine's father, multiple times. Blaine put everything he could into the kiss, and he just hoped Kurt understood.

They pulled away, an unknown amount of time passing between their kiss, and both pulled away breathless. Kurt looked up to see Blaine smiling, looking more content than he had since he had known him.

"You know I'm not normally one to kiss on the first date…" Kurt said, making Blaine laugh. He rested his head on his shoulder as he finished, "but I'm most definitely not regretting it."

He turned his head to see Blaine smiling impossibly wider than he was just a second ago. Kurt leaned in again for another kiss and Blaine instantly accepted. It was just a quick peck, but they both loved that they could do that now.

"So… is this going to be like, a thing?" Blaine asked.

Kurt immediately tensed up, making Blaine instantly feel awful, and then annoyed.

"Wait, so we just had a great date, we kissed, we've been sitting here for like half an hour, you put off your son for this date, but you still don't want this to be a thing?" Blaine said, hurt.

"I didn't say anything" Kurt said, almost at a whisper.

"Yeah, but you tensed up as soon as I asked, have you just been fuc-", he was cut off before he was about to finish by a hard kiss to his lips. He didn't even notice Kurt move and stand in front of him, but the next thing he knew his face was being cupped by Kurt's hand in one the best he's ever had. With so much heat and desire that it took him a second to figure out what was happening before he responded with his own lips.

When they pulled apart, Kurt leaned his forehead on Blaines, talking again at a scared whisper.

"I never said I didn't want to be with you, but I am also afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

"Afraid of being with you."

"Pardon my confusion", Blaine scoffed, "but can you elaborate?"

"I'm afraid I'm going to get attached, or worse, Eli is going to get attached, and then you're going to leave, I haven't been with someone for a long time, partly for Eli's sake, and partly for my own." Kurt said, feeling stupid for saying anything like that on the first date.

"Kurt," Blaine started, overwhelmed by all of the random emotion. "I really like you, and I haven't been in a relationship for a long time either, not since college actually. There's been casual hookups but nothing that me and the other guy actually cared about. So trust me, I'm terrified. But this is our first real date, let's not talk about this now, let's keep seeing each other, and see where this takes us. Does that sound okay?"

Kurt nodded, feeling even more like an idiot. He moved to sit back down next to Blaine, putting his head back on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry for being so stupid, it's just something I've worried about every time I've met a guy I liked."

"It's okay, I'd rather you tell me up front than push me away. I mean that for as long as we are together by the way."

Kurt sat back up straight, turning fully on the bench and sitting with his legs crossed, "Promise me the same on your end and you have a deal." Kurt said, feeling much lighter.

"Deal." Blaine said, turning to face him as well.

"Kiss on it?" Kurt said, laughing.

Blaine leaned in and Kurt met him in the middle.

"I hate how much I blush", Kurt said after pulling away.

"I think it's adorable."

"What time is it?"

"It's already 10:30"

"Shit, we should probably be going, I've gotta be up at least relatively early tomorrow." Kurt said, getting up. Blaine following.

"Yeah so do I, but there's this really cute manager at this starbucks near my house, I think he likes me too." Blaine said, grabbing Kurt's hand while they started walking back to where they parked.

"Hmm, I wouldn't put money on that." Kurt said, laughing when Blaine smacked him on the arm.

"Hey! Is abuse really the best way to start a relationship?" Kurt said, still laughing.

"You abused me first! You hurt my feelings." Blaine said, fake pouting.

"Awe poor Blaine."

"Yes poor me, I'm so sad, I'm just gonna go cry when I get home."

"Well text me goodnight when you're done."

"Wow! Okay fine I will." Blaine said, chuckling and also promising himself to actually text him goodnight.

They got back to Kurt's apartment, seeing a figure sitting on the steps. Blaine walked Kurt walked up to his door and when they were at the bottom of the staircase Kurt stopped in his tracks, breathing in and not breathing out, covering his face with his mouth.

Blaine saw a tall blonde girl come into the streetlight, stopping right in front of Kurt.

"Hi Kurt", She said, "long time."

"B-B-Brittney?" Kurt gasped out.

 **Hmmm I wasn't gonna end it on that, but that seemed like more fun. Also yay Blaine and Kurt are finally together! I know that like, realistically it would take more than one date, but fuck it this is fanfiction. Plus it's sorta 2 dates xD.**

 **Anyway's I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, as always the support on this story has been insane and you guys are awesome! We are at almost 2k views on this story already! Woa**

 **See you guys on the next update, which will be soon probably.**

 **Ryder :D**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys I know that as I'm writing this chapter it's not going to come out the day after i finish it. (whenever that is), just wanna apologize for the dropping in updates. I'm not quitting again( I promise), my favorite cousin is in town tho so i've been spending time with her. I will try to get back to regular updates soon though.**

 **As always, I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think**

Kurt blinked again, not believing what he saw.

"Britt? What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in years. How did you even know where I was? How long have you been here? Where is Ashley? Where is my son?"

Brittany laughed and nodded, understanding his confusion, and his not so well hidden defensiveness. She never planned on taking Eli away from him, even though he hinted at it with the ending of his little interrogation.

"Dolphin," She started, causing Blaine to give Kurt a confused look. "I will answer all of your questions, but can we go inside? Ashley wouldn't let me stay since I had no proof that I knew you, and I'm kinda cold."

Kurt nodded and unlocked the door, thanking Ashley for staying so late and promising to fill her in the next time he saw her at work.

Kurt walked into Eli's room to give him a kiss goodnight like he promised he would, even though Eli was asleep. He always found a way to know in the morning if Kurt actually did or not.

Kurt walked Blaine out to the porch, not wanting their first date to end.

"Blaine, i'm so sorry this happened, I had no idea she was coming you have to believe me, and there isn't anything between us, she's just… an old friend. I need to figure this out, and I'm kind of freakin-"

Blaine cut him off by leaning in and kissing him, finding that that was a pretty effective way of calming him down. Pulling away he started speaking in a low tone, not wanting to freak Kurt out any more.

"Kurt, you don't have to apologize. I understand, I do want to know what's going on… and why she called you a dolphin." Kurt started laughing at that, leaning his head on Blaines shoulder. Blaine turned to nuzzle Kurt's cheek and whisper in his ear. "But whatever you need, I'm here, you just need to let me in, whenever you do that needs to be when you're ready."

Kurt just nodded and pulled away so that he could kiss him again. He felt it. Right then and there. Even though it was so soon, he knew he had deeper feelings for Blaine Anderson than just liking him, he just hoped Blaine would end up feeling the same. Rather than saying those three little words, he opted for two.

"Thank you." He breathed out, Blaine feeling his cold breath on his lips.

Blaine leaned in one more time to kiss him goodnight and head back home

Blaine thought about the date the entire drive home. It had went well, they laughed, they talked, they stared into each others eyes unashamedly, they walked, they talked some more, and then they kissed. But as everything was going so well, Kurt had tensed, why was Kurt so worried about Blaine leaving all of a sudden? How much loss had Kurt faced? He had barely skimmed over Kurt's parents, and the fact that his mother was dead was barely touched on. Did he not talk about the people he lost?

Blaine knew Kurt was going to be more complicated to crack than the davinci code, but he was willing to try if it got him closer to him. The last thing he thought about before going to bed that night was "Who the hell was that woman, and why did Kurt immediately freeze up at her being there?" He knew he wasn't going to get the answers any time soon, and he assumed Kurt would close himself off again, he just hoped it wouldn't be for good this time.

They sat down at the kitchen table, cups of coffee in hand. Kurt decided to break the silence after not being able to wait any longer.

"Britt, you aren't taking him from me. I will fight it." Kurt said, voice barely above a whisper.

Brittney could see the tears threatening to escape, and she also noticed how his skin got even more pale than usual.

"Kurt, I thought you knew me better than this, but if you don't. I promise, on Santana," Kurt knew that was serious, he didn't know if they were still on speaking terms, but he knew Britt would never swear on Santana if she wasn't planning on following through, "that I will never take Eli away from you."

"You are his parent," she continued. "You are the one who puts him to bed every night, you are the one that feeds him, provides for him. I know I could never do that, and I'm not asking to."

Kurt noticed how Britt seemed so much more… intelligent? Than she did back in high school. She matured quite a lot in the last couple years, and he noticed he was sad to miss her growing even more up. He wished things turned out differently, except for the part about his son.

"Thank you Britt." he said, a single tear rolling down his cheek. He wiped his eyes and calmed himself down for a second before asking her all of the other questions on his mind.

"Can I ask you some more questions then?" Kurt asked

"Well you just did," She said with a wink, making Kurt chuckle. "But ask away my dolphin, I'll answer."

Kurt smiled again at her calling him dolphin, some things never change.

"I guess for starters, how did you find me?"

"I ended up back in Lima for a little while about a year or so ago. I saw your dad and had dinner with him and Carole, Finn was out of town I think? Either way, I asked them about you, and about Eli. Before I split I asked them where you were living, and they gave me your address after I basically begged them for it." She said, not wanting to leave out a single detail, she knew he was going to ask her this so she basically rehearsed it. "After I finished the tour I was on as a background dancer, I came here. It took me a few days to work up the nerve to come here, and then I did."

"Okay…" Kurt said with a nod, trying to process all of the information at once.

"Then, I guess my second question is, how is Tana?"

"I wouldn't know, she's been in New York since we graduated, she left me and never looked back."

Kurt put his hand over hers on the table, knowing what Santana meant to her. He saw the tears in her eyes and hurt for her, he knew what it was like to be alone.

"I guess you sort of answered this a second ago, but where have you been since we graduated?" Kurt asked her, curious to how she had been spending her time since they parted.

"I graduated from Yale at the top of my class, Lord Tubbington came to my graduation and got me a really cool scarf, I left it at home though." She said, making Kurt chuckle under his breath again, "Same old Britt" he thought to himself.

"After that, I went on tour as a dancer, dancing for anyone that would have me. Just to get my name out there, and to get as much work as possible." Kurt acknowledged her with a nod, remembering how many times he worked himself double overtime whenever he could to save as much for Eli and himself. "I just finished my last tour for a little while, I'm gonna find a job around here for at least the next couple of months, and I'm gonna rent a small apartment here too."

Kurt turned his head at that, "Why would you rent an apartment here?"

"Well, that brings me to why I came to you in the first place." She said, stopping herself and obviously thinking about how she wanted to say the next thing she was about to say.

"I want to be more involved in Eli's life."

Kurt reeled at that, thinking back to a moment ago, when she said she wouldn't try and take him away from him. "You just said you weren't going to take him from me? He's one of the few things I have to live for, everything I do is for him. You don't see him for almost 7 years and you think you can come back in and take him away from me?"

Kurt could feel himself getting angrier, he also knew his voice was getting higher pitched and getting louder. He calmed himself down before waking up his son.

Brittany put her hand over his, trying to calm him.

"Kurt, I told you, never in my life will I take Eli from you. I just want to be involved in his life, even a little bit. You can decide how much or little, but I want to know my son."

Kurt calmed his heart rate back down, and felt his body loosen up.

"What do you mean?" Kurt asked, wondering exactly what she was proposing.

"I just want to be… the cool Aunt or something? I don't know dolphin, I just want to be able to see him. We don't even have to tell him I'm his mom. I can be 'fun Aunt Britt' if you want, but if you have a weekend you have a date, or a day where you work late, I can be there, and I can bond with him."

She got up at that, feeling it was best to head out and leave Kurt with his thoughts.

"Kurt, I said it twice and I'll say it as many times as you need to hear it." Kurt looked up at her at that, in the hallway to leave.

"But I will never take your son from you. I am in town for a while before my next tour. Think about what I asked and let me know. My number is the same, and I know you wouldn't delete it. I love you dolphin."With that she walked out of his apartment. Leaving him with his mouth open and mind flooded with questions. He sat there for the next half hour, nursing his coffee and letting his mind run with questions, and possible answers to questions, and possible questions to those answers of the questions.

Before he knew it it was midnight and he was exhausted. He got up and without even the energy to shower, stripped to his underwear lazily and curled up in bed. Wishing his favorite date ever, didn't end in so much confusion. He knew he had to tell Blaine, but he just didn't know where to start. The only thing he was happy about was that he was off the next day, meaning he could process all of this information while Eli was at school.

Blaine woke up the next morning, all the questions from the night before flooding back into his head. He got into the shower, turned on his playlist, and got lost in his music. Clearing his mind for the work day ahead, and mentally preparing himself for dealing with his father yet again.

He got a ping on his phone that was laying on his bed while he was getting dressed, and practically leapt across the room for it, only to realize it wasn't Kurt.

"Hey little bro, how'd your date go? And are we still on for this weekend?" - C

"I honestly don't know about last night, I'll fill you in on saturday." - B

"Sounds good, but we had to move the dinner to friday, can you still make it then?" - C

"I'll make it work, Cya bro, gotta go deal with dad for the day." - B

"I still don't know why you put yourself through that, but good luck baby bro, text me if you need anything." - C

"I will, love you" - B

"Love you too, adios." - C

"Adios" - B

Kurt dropped Eli off at school, not sending him to the "before school after school" as Eli liked to call it. Kurt drove back home, his thoughts occupying all of his attention. "Bad Romance" even came on on the stereo and he didn't utter a word. He spent the whole morning and the beginning of the afternoon sitting on the couch, mindless television on in the background while he thought about everything he was told the night before.

He really wanted to trust Britt to be there for Eli, and he would love the opportunity to go on dates with Blaine without there being a time limit for them. He also knew that he had never even spent a full night apart from his son in almost seven years. He was so used to having his son in the next room over, and he didn't trust himself to be okay with it if he wanted to stay over at Britt's for the night.

He also knew though, that Blaine would be there to comfort him, or at least hopefully. He got up from his sulking and figured he might as well be a little bit productive on his day off. He put all of the laundry he could fit in the laundry machine and started a load while he tidied up around the apartment. He didn't bother with his room or Eli's, knowing his room was clean, and knowing Eli took relatively good care of his room on his own. Something he made sure to teach him at a young age so he didn't have to deal with stepping on his action figures while trying to clean up his mess.

After cleaning no longer occupied his mind, he had made up his mind. He texted Brittany to meet him at a local cafe to talk. He pulled in an hour later, seeing that she was already sitting down, fingers drumming on the sides of her cup, obviously anxious.

He sat down opposite her in the booth and sighed, not enjoying the stress him and Brittany were both under. He figured he might as well just start talking, getting the conversation over with as soon as possible. He went up to the barista and ordered a grande nonfat mocha, waiting for it to arrive and heading back to the booth he started,

"Britt, I thought about it a lot. Like the last 9 hours of today and a few hours of last night it's all I've been able to think about. Eli noticed something was up when I was barely responding to him in the car. But I don't think it needs to be this difficult. You've given me reason to not trust you in the past." she lowered her head at that, expecting this to be the outcome she was waiting for. "But after just last night, you're not the same girl from high school, and… even though we haven't seen each other, I still love you Britt." She laughed at that, "No, not in that way, but you're family, no matter what. So.. I'm okay with letting you and Eli get to know each other, but I need to set two things as… 'ground rules' so to speak."

She nodded, urging him to continue.

"First thing, you don't tell him you're his mom, he hasn't brought it up in a long time, and I don't want him to bring it up again, not right now at least. Even if he asks, you find a way to change the subject, I don't want this to be any more confusing for him than it has to be."

She nodded again, agreeing.

"Honestly, the second thing is just be kind to him. He is without a doubt the most kind hearted person I know, something I think he gets from you, along with his energeticness. I believe you when you say you won't take him from me, because you've never really lied to me Britt." she laughed again, hiding her smile with her hand. Causing Kurt to laugh too.

"Okay well that one time, but it did result in something pretty fantastic."

She nodded at that agreeing. She stood up to hug him, he mimicked her movement and they stood at the side of the booth, hugging each other for what felt like eternity. She knew it was going to be difficult to get to know Eli, and for Kurt to let her back into both of their lives, but she was willing to try, and she had a feeling Kurt was too.

"Thank you dolphin." She said, with a tear running down her cheek.

Kurt laughed and pulled away at that, removing the tear with his thumb.

"Are you ever going to stop calling me dolphin?"

"I don't plan on it."

They both laughed and sat back down, catching up on all that has been missed all these years, and trying to mend a bridge that was broken.

 **So… Even though I hit a few roadblocks writing this chapter… and changed a few plot points while writing it, I really like how it turned out, I also loved writing it. Like i've said before this story never really had a layed out plotline, I've always been writing it as i've seen fit, off the top of my head.**

 **To be honest though I never expecting the whole Britt situation to play out as i wrote it, but once again I kinda love how it turned out.**

 **Also just a fun tid bit, while i was writing about Kurt NOT singing to Bad Romance, I was actively singing and listening to Bad Romance while writing this. (no judging)**

 **Anyways i hope you guys enjoyed, sorry about the delay in this one, let me know what you think**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi everyone! Happy 4th of July! I'm writing this on the third and hopefully publishing it on the 4th but it might not be out till the 5th… so either way yeah happy 4th! Thanks everyone for the feedback and everything. Hope you enjoy.**

 **Ryder**

Blaine's POV

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

Blaine knocked on his brothers door on friday night, alone. He sighed as he finished knocking and waited for someone to come open the door. The moment he saw Charlie his mood turned from somber to completely happy.

He never felt like he saw his nephew enough, so any excuse he had he took.

"Hi Uncle Blaine!" Charlie yelled, startling the neighbors across the street who were walking into their own home. Blaine turned and waved to them to let them know everything was alright, they waved back and walked away, causing Blaine to chuckle at his nephew still bouncing in his arms.

Cooper came around the door then, prompting Charlie to let go of his release on Blaine and letting Blaine give his brother a proper hug.

"Hey little bro, how are you?" Cooper said, releasing him from the hug.

Blaine shrugged and didn't say anything. An act Cooper knew well, it meant something was bothering Blaine and he wanted Cooper to know but he didn't want to say it. Cooper decided to remember to bring something up to him later in the night during their brother talks they have at the end of any gathering.

They went through the dinner with ease, Blaine wanting to catch up with Liz on her work and entertaining Charlie as much as he could. Before he knew it Elizabeth was leaving to put Charlie to bed and leaving Cooper and Blaine with time to talk, brother to brother. \

"Soooo, Blainey." Cooper said, trying to get his brother to start talking.

Blaine stopped drinking his beer and looked at Cooper with an annoyed glare. "Coop." he said, knowing that was all he needed to say.

Cooper laughed and conceded, knowing how much his brother hated that nickname.

"Okay okay, but actually. What's wrong?"

Blaine looked up at that. "What do you mean?"

"Well. Where would you like me to start?" Cooper said, knowing Blaine wasn't very good at hiding his emotions.

"Please enlighten me oh wise older brother of camelot." Blaine said in a fake british accent, making Cooper laugh again. Blaine turning up a small smirk at making his brother laugh. All of a sudden Cooper got serious again though, something Blaine wasn't fond of, because it meant Cooper would get him to talk about his feelings one way or another.

"Well, the entire dinner you didn't bring up Kurt once, for starters. You also haven't given anyone a full smile tonight except for Charlie. Something Liz and I both noticed considering he's usually the one that makes you smile after a shitty day with dad." Cooper started, causing Blaine to smile at the thought of Charlie.

"Point proven. Also, honestly, none of that even mattered because you wear your emotions plain as day on your face. You just look confused, not even totally upset. Just sorta lost. You've only known this guy what… a month or something? And you've gone on one and a half dates? How did you fall so hard already?"

Blaine looked down at his lap, taking another drink of his beer he spoke up after thinking for a few minutes. Cooper giving him the time to respond.

"Honestly man… I don't know. There's just something about him I can't forget about, but I can't realize what i'm forgetting. He's the first guy i've felt this way about since Henry." Cooper's head perked up at the mention of Blaine's ex, hating him for what he did.

"Blaine…" Cooper said, wanting to sound as delicate as possible to not hurt his brother. "Blaine, Henry was an asshole. He cheated on you in your first real relationship. Don't let him pave the way for your future relationships, otherwise you're going to be spending all the time you're with that person looking to see if they are being faithful, rather than enjoying the time you have with them, and if you have to do that in the first place, then you shouldn't be with them in the first place." Cooper finished.

"While that advice is good advice, and I appreciate it. That's not what i'm worried about."

"Then what?" Cooper asked, confused at what else it could be.

"I'm just afraid to fall for someone again, and to have them inevitably hurt me." Blaine admitted, making Coopers heart break. Seeing his brother so scared of something like a relationship. Something that was supposed to only make you happy.

"Well buddy, if you live your life afraid, you're not really living at all."

"Easy for you to say, you have the love of your life. You guys had a kid together. You're living a dream. You're living the dream I want some day." "Well you'll get it some day. Maybe that will be you and Kurt, maybe it won't be. But you have to try, or else you'll never know what could be."

Blaine nodded, taking his brothers advice genuinely.

"When did you get so smart?" Blaine asked after a minute of silence between them.

Cooper laughed at that. "I've always been this smart, your heads just been so far up your ass the whole time that you haven't noticed."

Cooper laughed again when he looked over and saw Blaine leaning back holding out his middle finger to Cooper casually, with his eyes closed.

Blaine spoke up again though, obviously not settled. His eyes were still closed, and he was still leaning back on the couch though.

"That's not all of it though."

Cooper looked over at that, nodding. Then noticing that his brother couldn't see him, prompted him to continue.

"We had a really really nice time on our date. We connected well, we went for a walk after a really great dinner, we kissed, we watched the stars. It was like my dream first date." Blaine started, confusing his brother at what the bad part of it was.

"And that's bad because…. The dominators came from space and started capturing people again?"

Blaine laughed at that, "Alright. Relax Barry Allen."

Cooper laughed in response clapping his shoulder and nodding at him to continue, glad they both understood the reference.

"When the date ended, I walked him to the outside of his apartment complex, and there was this woman sitting there. But his mom is dead, and his stepmom's name is Carole…. I think? But he said her name was Brittany. Or Brianna. I don't remember, but either way, his entire face paled at the sight of her. They definitely have a history, but i don't know. It just scared me. He shut me out for a week before, i'm scared he's going to shut me out again but permanently, and I won't even get to see how great this could possibly be." Blaine said, letting Cooper process for a few moments.

"Well Blaine, that's weird. But the only advice I have for that is to just talk to him. That's the only way you're going to find out what you want to know."

"Easier said than done, our date was on like.. Tuesday. It's Saturday, I've texted him twice and he hasn't responded."

"Well Blaine, if he doesn't realize how fantastic, smart, funny, and caring you are. Then he doesn't deserve you."

Blaine smiled at that, and let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Even though he knew his brother would love him unconditionally, no matter what he told him. It still scared him to talk about his feelings to well… anyone.

At that moment, Blaine's phone pinged in his pocket. He pulled it out to see a new text from Kurt.

" _Hey Blaine, can I explain? Meet me at my store in half an hour?" - K_

Blaine knew what Kurt was talking about, and his straight face curled into a smirk and then into a smile at the prospect of seeing Kurt again.

" _See you then" - B_

He didn't even need to think about responding, he figured he owed him at least an explanation. Cooper gave him a wink at seeing his face light up just at the reading of a text. He didn't need to be a genius to see that it was from Kurt. He also didn't need to be a genius to know that Blaine was absolutely smitten with this Kurt guy, and he just hoped Kurt didn't hurt his brother. He couldn't have another Henry.

"Ugh if you keep pretending that nothing just happened then fine. But just get out of my house to make it to your date on time."

Blaine looked up at that and laughed at his brother. He leaned over and gave Cooper a hug, thanking him for letting him vent and for giving him advice.

"Tell Liz I said goodnight." Blaine said, putting his jacket on at the door, opening the door to leave.

"Will do baby bro." Cooper said, giving his brother one last time. A second later Blaine was out of his house and heading to his car to meet Kurt at wherever they were going. He closed the door to his house, cleaned up the living room, and walked into the bedroom he shared with his wife.

"Hows Blaine doing?" Liz said, looking up from her book.

"That boy is absolutely smitten, and he's too blind to even realize it fully." Cooper said, changing into his pajamas and joining his wife in their bed.

Kurt's POV

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

"Okay Eli," Kurt said, kneeling down on his sons level,

"What did I tell you?" He asked, making sure his son would be good for Brittany.

"Listen to Aunt Britt and be a good boy."

"Good." Kurt said, satisfied. Enough.

Kurt and Brittany had been talking a lot over the last week, with Kurt barely responding to Blaine. Or.. Did he even respond to Blaine? Shit.

Kurt was surprised again at how much Brittany had matured, she seemed to understand exactly what this was, and that it wasn't a lord tubbington situation where she could pretend he was a cat unicorn, or whatever went on in her head. They reconnected well as friends, and when he introduced her to Eli they connected instantaneously. Both with the same energy and just complete positive outlook on life. Not worrying about what other people say, and keeping the people they love close. He knew he saw a lot of Britt in Eli before the two met, but seeing them interact just brought it even more to the forefront of his mind, he really wanted this to work out. He has been hurt too many times, he can't afford hurting his son.

He didn't want to have her take him for a night so soon into them meeting each other, mainly because he thought Eli would hate the idea. But he was warming up to Brittany really quickly and he jumped at the opportunity. Kurt's chest hurt a little at how quickly he wanted to be with Brittany, and he didn't know why.

"Auntie Britt will be here to pick you up in about 10 minutes buddy, do you have your backpack ready?" Kurt called into his son's room, stopping at the door and watching him play on the floor.

"Yeah daddy, everything's ready for tonight. You're gonna pick me up in the morning though right?", Eli asked, as Kurt walked into the room and sat down on the ground with his son. Eli climbing into his lap.

"Sure thing, and since tomorrow is Sunday and I don't have to work, I was thinking we could go home and watch movies and snuggle on the couch all day."

Eli jumped at that and turned in his dad's lap, yelling right into his ear about how excited he was to spend the day with his dad. Kurt would have been annoyed at him for screaming right in his ear, but he was glad he wasn't going to lose his son any time soon, even if the logical part of him knew that wasn't going to happen period.

At that, Brittany knocked on the door, cutting Eli off on his rant of movies he wanted to watch the following day. As Kurt opened the door for Brittany, she looked concerned.

"Hey! I heard someone yelling. Is everyone alright?"

Kurt looked down at his son, his son's face completely red. Kurt laughed and ruffled the hair on his son's head.

"Don't worry about it, everything's fine." He said. "Eli, you have your backpack. You ready to go?"

Eli walked in front of him and towards Brittany on the front stairs, "Yep daddy! I'm all packed."

Kurt kneeled down so his son could wrap his arms around his neck.

"I'm gonna miss you daddy!" Eli said, starting to tear up. Kurt felt immediately awful but he knew his son would be fine.

"Oh buddy i'm going to miss you too, but it's only going to be a night! And you'll be with Auntie Britt the whole time, you guys are gonna have so much fun that you will be in bed before you know it, and then you'll be waking up and you'll see me right after." Kurt didn't know if he was telling Eli this for his benefit or his own, but he knew he had to say it.

Brittany stood behind Eli, in awe of the bond the two boys have, so happy that she could give Kurt someone he could love so much. He deserved to be happy, whatever version of happiness that was, and he was clearly happy that Eli was in his life. They finished hugging after what felt like an eternity later to Brittany even though it was probably only a minute tops.

They said their final goodbyes and Kurt closed the door as they walked down the steps out to Brittany's car. He knew he had to talk to Blaine, explain why he vanished again. He just couldn't bare the thought of losing his son, and Brittany suddenly showing back up gave him the need to be with his son as much as he could, he just hoped Blaine understood that.

His logical side said that as long as he was honest to Blaine then he would be fine, but his emotional side assumed he just wouldn't respond to Kurt. Kurt had already ditched him for a total of two weeks in the few months they had known each other, why would Blaine even bother with him.

Someone as nice and cute and fun as Blaine probably could get any guy he wanted anyway… Kurt thought. Not liking his odds the more and more he thought about it.

"I mean who wants to date a single gay dad who works at starbucks.." Kurt mumbled to himself as he walked into his room.

He figured it was worth the shot though, he knew there was something about Blaine, he just wanted to know what it was.

Getting into the shower, Kurt thought up as many different scenarios in his head as he could about how this talk, if it even happened, could possibly go. It started out positive, and slowly went downhill in outcomes as his body pruned more and more under the hot water.

He jumped out realizing that he was actually pruning, and walked into his room, removing the towel and setting it on the bed, he grabbed his phone. He didn't want to ask but he knew he wouldn't have another way to talk to Blaine, this wasn't the sort of thing to explain over the phone. But it was 9:00 on a saturday night, surely Blaine had plans… _Probably with another guy…_ Kurt thought, mentally hitting himself for even thinking about that.

" _Hey Blaine, can I explain? Meet me at my store in half an hour?" - K_

Kurt had a feeling Blaine would know what he was talking about. Considering their abrupt end to their date and then the week of silence. His heart stopped when his phone alerted on his bed as he was putting underwear on.

" _See you then" - B_

Kurt read his phone again. Was it that easy? Was Blaine that nice of a guy to give him that chance to explain? So many guys he knows wouldn't even think about it, they would already be on another guy by now.

He jumped in happiness at being able to see Blaine and set the record straight, finishing getting dressed. Going for classy but casual. He knew nobody would be at his store at this time, so even if Blaine didn't want to go anywhere Kurt could unlock the store and they could talk there, completely private.

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

Blaine pulled up on the sidewalk and parked, looking out his windshield to see Kurt standing at the front of the store anxiously bouncing from foot to foot.

"Why didn't you go inside? Afraid I wouldn't find the store?" Blaine asked, coming up behind Kurt.

Kurt turned and smiled at the sound of Blaine.

"Yeah I just have that little faith." Kurt deadpanned, causing Blaine to crack a small smile.

"Actually though, the store is technically closed, so I was thinking we could walk around and talk, or we could sit in the store."

"But you said it was closed", Blaine said, focusing more on the latter.

Kurt flashed his keys at him and Blaine nodded in understanding, forgetting that Kurt was the store manager.

"Uhm whatever you want to do.. I don't mind." Blaine said, timidly, just wanting to understand what was going on, not caring about where they were.

"Let's go inside then, the privacy will be nice, and quite rare in my case."

Blaine nodded his agreement and followed in behind him, watching as Kurt walked into the back room to turn one of the lights on.

"Won't customers try to come in if they see that the light is on?" Blaine asked, as Kurt walked out of the back room.

"Well there's only one light on, and there will only be us two sitting at a table talking. If people can't figure out that that still means closed then I fear for them."

Blaine smiled again at Kurt's bluntness. Kurt and Blaine sat down at the same table they did the last time Kurt had to explain himself to Blaine, the back corner, slightly cut off from everywhere else in the store. Blaine found himself always hovering to that area, no matter where he was. It was where he was most comfortable.

Kurt sat there and rubbed his hands worriedly, breaking to tap his fingers, he had no idea where to start.

A few minutes in and Kurt hadn't talked, Blaine was starting to get annoyed. Was this supposed to just be a waste of his time?

"You said you wanted the chance to explain, so… explain." Blaine said, motioning for Kurt to just start talking.

He wasn't aware that when he said that he was going to launch Kurt into a 900 word explanation on what happened, but by the end of it he was pretty sure he understood everything.

"So… If I got all of that at once, your sons 'long lost' mother, is now back. Showing up because she found you through your dad, who is back in Lima. She only had happened to stop by on her tour as a.. Dancer?" He quesitoned, when Kurt nodded in agreement he continued. "So then, she wanted to be apart of her sons life, whom she hadn't seen in what.. 7 years?"

"He will be 7 on October 3rd, so like… two more weeks?" Kurt responded, Blaine nodded in agreement.

"And then they clicked really well, but in the beginning you were so afraid of losing your son to her… that you spent as much time with him as you could, trying to shelter him from Brittany. And then tonight is their first night together without you, which you used to come say all of this to me.." Blaine said, thinking he did a pretty damn good job.

Kurt rubbed his eyes in exhaustion, tired of the entire week.

"Wait when did we see each other last?" Kurt asked, not aware of how much time had passed.

"Uh… Last friday?" Blaine said.

"Holy shit today is Saturday…" Kurt said, not realizing how long he went without talking to this beautiful man in front of him.

"That would be correct." Blaine replied, laughing.

"I'm so sorry Blaine, I said I wouldn't do it again last time, and then I did it again. I just-" Kurt said, starting to tear up.

"Hey hey hey whats wrong." Blaine said, worried. He pulled his chair around the table to sit right next to Kurt. Once he sat back down next to him Kurt leaned his head on Blaine's shoulder and cried.

"I just can't lose him Blaine, he's all I feel like I have left. He is my entire world." Kurt cried.

"Shh shh, it's okay it's okay." Blaine said, not really sure how to soothe a crying Kurt. He kept on whispering reassuring mantras in his ear, trying to calm him down.

Soon after, Kurt stopped crying, starting to lightly hiccup in the aftermath, something Blaine found extremely adorable.

"I'm so sorry, I just like dodged you for a week and then right when we see each other I cry on you. I know you probably don't want to see me again." Kurt said, scooting away from him, getting ready to leave when Blaine inevitably would.

Blaine scooted closer to him and lifted his chin with his pointer finger, looking right into his blue eyes, the same ones he couldn't get enough of, and said,

"I don't want that."

Kurt's eyes immediately changed from showing fear and worry to showing nothing but happiness at looking into Blaine's eyes and seeing he meant it, he really meant it. Before he even thought about it he leaned in and captured Blaine's lips in a heated kiss.

Only coming up for air, Kurt leaned his forehead on Blaine's, giggling as he caught his breath, not wanting this moment to end.

"Neither do I." Kurt responded, cheeks turning red and his heart pounding in anticipation and happiness.

"You know…" Kurt started, causing Blaine to look back up into his eyes.

"I mean, I have the house to myself for the night." That caught Blaine's attention and his eyes turned from their beautiful hazel, to dark with lust. Kurt took a little pride in himself at thinking he could do that just with the implication.

"I was thinking we could have our second date, but leave before dessert, I've got dessert at home." Kurt said, face flushed but winking anyway. Trying to be as seductive as he could, still cracking a cheeky grin at Blaine.

"Well I already ate dinner at Cooper's." Blaine said, "Any way we could just skip right to dessert?" Blaine finished, leaning in to kiss Kurt again. The kiss getting more heated, Kurt opened his mouth to let Blaine explore his with his tongue. Moaning at the instant pleasure it brought them both.

Kurt pulled away to breathe. Breathless he whispered to Blaine,

"I think that can be arranged."

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I know it was a bit delayed but you know.. Like life and stuff happened, I hope once again that everyone had a great 4th of July! And if you're not in america i hope you had a great… uh… regular wednesday! Hopefully this update was worth the wait… Let me know what you think!**

 **Ryder**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey everyone! I know i've been on a bit of a hiatus but like life happened so yea… Also, this chapter is my first time ever trying to write anything sexual… so I need you guys to like bare with me on this first chapter, i'm going to try to get better as my writing progresses but i can't promise anything great, and i mean i know people don't read only for the sex, at least i don't personally. But i still think it's an important part of the story. (sometimes)**

 **Also i just wanted to say thank you guys so much for the recent support on this story! It has been absolutely insane! We're already up to like 3500 views or something and that's just mind blowing. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

 **Ryder :D**

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

Leaving Blaine sitting, trying to fix a certain problem in his pants, Kurt started walking to the door. Blaine knew he shouldn't, but he wasn't exactly thinking with his head right then and there. He stepped in front of Kurt just as he was going to hit the door and grabbed him by the shoulders, pinned him to the door, and captured his lips in a heated kiss.

Both fighting for dominance, Kurt let out a soft moan, prompting Blaine to thrust his tongue in Kurt's mouth. They stood there, reveling in the sensation of being with each other. Before it could go even further, Kurt pushed Blaine by the shoulders. It took Blaine a second but his head caught up and he responded, pulling away with his face red and his heart beating faster than he had ever felt it before.

"Blaine, as much as it may be my fantasy to have sex in my store.." Kurt started, giggling." There are cameras in here that the district manager can check whenever any weird activity goes on. I can get us out of kissing, I can't really explain my way out of bending you over and fucking you on the condiment bar." Kurt finishes, trying to be as seductive as possible.

If the moan from Blaine was any indication, he could see his point was well received.

"Kuuurt" Blaine said, leaning his head on Kurt's shoulder, accidentally pressing their erections together.

Even through their clothes they could feel how achingly hard their cocks were, causing them both to moan again.

"You have my address." Kurt said, gently pushing Blaine off of him.

"If you want this to continue, and I think your pants tent is quite the indication that you do…" Kurt said laughing as Blaine slapped his shoulder.

"Then how about you follow me home, and then you can do whatever you want to me, for however long you want to do it." Kurt finished with a wink, satisfied.

He turned again to open the door and as he was unlocking it he could feel Blaine's eyes on him. It took him every ounce of self control he had to not turn around and take back everything he said and just take Blaine right then and there, in the middle of his store. The thought of coming back in in the morning and being the only one that knew what had happened the night before was turning him on even more than he knew it would.

He unlocked the door and moved to let Blaine out, closing it behind them and locking it. He grabbed Blaine by the back of the neck and pulled him in for another kiss. It wasn't long or heated, but they both knew what it meant, and what was going to happen soon.

They both got into their cars, staring at each other for as long as they could, and started the drive back to Kurt's apartment. With it being so late at the night the drive only took 10 minutes, but it felt like an eternity on the way there.

Kurt got there just before Blaine and before he could get out of his car Kurt was unlocking the door to his apartment rushing inside to clean as much as he could. Blaine walked in to the sight of Kurt trying to pick up toys that were scattered around the living room and got caught giggling.

Kurt turned and looked at him and gave him quite a death stare, something he hadn't seen from Kurt before.

"Kurt I don't care if there's toys on your floor." He said through a fit of giggles he didn't quite know why he was having.

"I know you have a son, I also know that my brother's son is actually probably more messy than Eli, so please don't worry about your apartment."

He started to look around the apartment more, since he hadn't been there very much in the past. There were pictures of him and Eli everywhere. He could also see a man holding what looked like a younger version of Kurt, and slightly like how Eli is right now, and a woman standing behind them. He found himself walking towards it, like something was drawing him towards it.

"You look really young in this picture, no more than 7." Blaine said, figuring he was about the same age in the picture as Eli is now,

"Okay that's creepy."

Blaine turned and laughed, feigning offence holding a hand to his chest.

"Kurt i'm not a pedo!"

Kurt cocked his head to the side, wondering where that came from, and then realized what he insinuated.

"Oh my god Blaine!" Kurt said laughing.

Kurt couldn't stop giggling and Blaine was trying to find what was funny, was there some sort of twisted joke he just wasn't understanding?

"Blaine that's me as a child, it was on my 7th birthday, I said it was creepy because you guessed it so on the dot you goof."

Blaine started blushing, also loving the slight term of endearment Kurt just used, knowing he wouldn't mind hearing it in the future.  
"How did you guess that so perfectly anyway?"

Blaine turned to examine the picture again. "Well, I know Eli is about 7, and he looks like a mini version of you, so I just kinda guessed based on his age."

He turned to keep looking at the other pictures, recognizing Brittany. Then seeing the same group of people popping up, everyone either dancing or sitting together. It must have been his show choir friends back in high school, because even though he only recognized Brittany, the same faces kept on reappearing, especially one woman in particular. She had long blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes, but she only showed up in pictures where Kurt was a kid.

"Who is this?" Blaine asked, pointing to the woman in one of the frames.

He thought he saw a small tear escaping Kurt's eye but he wasn't sure. He blinked and responded.

"That's my mom, she died when I was 9, these are all copies of the pictures I have left with her."

Blaine's heart sunk immediately. He had spent nights wishing his parents would just leave him completely, not wanting to be hurt by their hatred anymore, but Kurt had actually lost his mom, at such a young age, and he could see from the look on his face then and now that he really loved her.

"Do you remember much about her?" Blaine asked, not wanting to pry but trying to console Kurt in any way he could. He saw the tears threatening to escape his eyes, but didn't dare mention it.

"She was a great mom, she always loved me unconditionally. Dad says that she knew I was gay when I was three. And that when I said I wanted to marry a prince she didn't even bat an eye, just kept on loving me for who I was. That's hard to find in Ohio." Kurt said, clearing his throat and not so subtly wiping at his eyes.

"You were really lucky to have her, at least for the time that you did." Blaine replied, not looking Kurt in the eyes and thinking about how awful his parents had been to him since he came out in high school.

"Yea well I'm also lucky to have Eli, and my dad, and now Britt, and all my coworkers that adore me."

"Yeah." Blaine said, not knowing what else to say. Sometimes it felt like he was completely alone in the world, with the only people trying to pull him out of the darkness being Cooper, Liz, and Charlie.

"There's also this curly haired goofball that I bumped into…" Kurt said, laughing as Blaine turned with a small smile.

"Hmm what about this curly haired goofball do you like?" Blaine asked, moving slowly towards Kurt.

Kurt wrapped his arms around Blaine's shoulders as he approached him.

"Well, he's just a little bit shorter than me which is a bit of a plus. He has these gorgeous eyes that I still can't figure out the color of… He adores my son even though sometimes he is quite literally the devil." Kurt said, stopping to laugh at Blaine's shocked expression.

"He's patient with me for whatever reason… and hmmm there was one thing I was forgetting."

At that moment Blaine couldn't take it any more and leaned in to take Kurt's lips in a kiss. It started out chaste, but right when Kurt elicited that same moan from before, Blaine grabbed the back of his neck and pushed them together closer than he thought possible. They stood there, tasting, exploring each others mouths until they both had to pull away for air.

"Oh yeah… and he's a really good kisser." Kurt said, face flushed.

"Hmm so I've been told."

"Oh really? By who?" Kurt asked

"This really cute guy that I met a while ago."

"We could play this game all night" Kurt said, laughing.

"So you don't want me to lavish you in indirected but obviously on purpose compliments?" Blaine asked

"Well I didn't say that… lavish me" Kurt said

"As I was saying…" Blaine said, hooking his hands around Kurt's waist and pulling him closer.

"He's a bit taller than me, which is a plus, he is beautiful in every sense of the word. He works hard to provide for his family. He has these incredible light blue eyes that I could get lost in for hours." Blaine was about to keep going but he was cut off by Kurt's lips.

The kiss immediately became heated, and they found themselves walking towards Kurt's bedroom, kissing the whole time. They walked in and Kurt turned the light on, he beckoned Blaine over to the bed and sat down, leaving Blaine to stand in front of him. Before Blaine could even react Kurt was unbuckling his belt and pulling down his zipper.

He mouthed over Blaine's erection through his tight underwear, barely able to hold his cock.

He pulled down the smooth fabric and started stroking, causing Blaine to moan and lean his head back. A noise that Kurt never thought he would be able to make Blaine elicit.

Kurt circled his tongue around the head, tasting the precum, and sunk his head down fast, going all the way down on Blaine.

"Oh my… Jesus fuck Kurt." Blaine stuttered out.

Kurt looked up at him and smirked and continued sucking.

Blaine could feel the heat pooling in his stomach, and not wanting this to be over for him so quickly, he pulled Kurt up and tackled him down on the bed in a kiss. He pulled up and started kissing down Kurt's body, making sure he got to every spot he could.

He kissed down his peck, swirled his tongue around his nipples, kissed at his stomach, all the while having Kurt writhing underneath him, cock aching at the pleasure.

Once Blaine got to Kurt's thighs, he teased him and kissed on the insides, before licking at his balls. He licked up the underside of Kurt's cock and without hesitating sunk his mouth all the way down on it.

Kurt found himself gripping at the sheets under him, not wanting to grab into Blaine's hair.

Blaine looked up at him with eyes completely blown from lust, and grabbed Kurt's hand and put it in his curls. Kurt grabbed hesitantly and that only seemed to spur Blaine on. He started pushing Blaine's head down but right when he did that Blaine pulled off, letting go of his cock with a pop and a face wide grin on his face.

"Mmmm why'd you stop?" Kurt said, not sure he was able to actually formulate a sentence.

"'Cause as much as I like what we're doing right now, I'd rather you fuck me." Blaine said, his voice was deeper than usual and his throat sounds scratchy, only turning Kurt even more on.

"I can work with that." Kurt said, leaning over to the bedside table and opening a drawer, pulling out lube and a condom.

Blaine took the lube from Kurt's hand and spread it over his own hand, leaving Kurt looking at him questioningly until he realized what he was doing.

Blaine was on his knees, bent over opening himself up, and it was the single most erotic thing Kurt had ever seen, he was just about to start stroking himself when Blaine put a hand over his telling him to stop.

"Watch me" Blaine choked out, moaning at the feeling of fingering himself.

Kurt agreed without complaint, loving the little show Blaine was putting on for him. Blaine sat himself back up straight, obviously content with himself, and rolled the condom onto Kurt's length. He squeezed more lube out of the bottle and stroked Kurt a few times before climbing onto his waist and sitting down on his cock.

He eased himself down, both moaning loudly at the sensation, and once he felt himself settled, began to move up and down on Kurt.

It took Kurt a good minute to remember to thrust up into Blaine, but once he started he couldn't stop, and they got into an easy rhythm.

Blaine leaned down to kiss Kurt while he thrusted up into him, going faster and faster until Kurt could feel himself about to come.

"Blaine.. I'm gonna-"

"Come for me Kurt, do it." Blaine moaned out

Kurt grabbed Blaine and stroked a few short time, feeling Blaine tighten around him and cum on his chest. That was all it took to send Kurt over the edge himself and he felt himself pulsing inside of Blaine's heat.

Blaine collapsed on top of Kurt, lazily kissing him with a blissed out smile on his face.

Kurt could barely speak, but he pointed towards the box of tissues and Blaine pulled himself from on top of Kurt and cleaned them up, throwing the condom in the trashcan and curling back up under the covers next to Kurt.

"That was… wow" Kurt said

"I couldn't have said it better myself" Blaine said, giggling at Kurt's post-orgasm state.

"You're really cute you know that?" Kurt said, turning over to lay on his side and look at Blaine.

Blaine felt his face flush even redder than before and just laughed the compliment away, still not comfortable with them except for from the few in his family that sent praise his way.

Kurt was exhausted, but also so content that he couldn't remove the smile from his face. He turned so he was on his back and looked up at the ceiling.

He felt Blaine move over and lean his head on Kurt's chest. Kurt looped his arm around him and that is how they fell asleep, happy in each others arms.

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

 **Uhm okay.. So i think that might have been awful but maybe it wasn't? Idk I would love you guys to tell me what you think, regardless though i'm still learning as i write and stuff but i'm planning on doing more fluff and the occasional smut here and there.**

 **Also there were a lot of variables that went into me not updating for so long but by no means am i done with this story, just you know… life..**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed and I am going to try and update as much as i can, shits just kinda hectic, but i'm sure most people on here can understand that.**

 **Much love**

 **Ryder**


	14. Chapter 14

**SO… hi! I'm back… Sorta? I've been slowly thinking more and more about this story, but honestly everything about fanfiction kinda sat on the back burner for me, a lot of things have happened to where I haven't even gotten the chance to think about it. The last time i stopped posting i was still at least reading fanfiction, whenever i got the chance, but this time I literally went like 3 or so months just not even opening the site, which kinda sucks. The amount of time i have spent on this site is like uncountable for me. I hope you guys do enjoy, let me know what you think, or yell at me for being MIA for months idc.**

 **Ryder :D**

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

Blaine woke up with a somewhat familiar pain in his body, but as he came to, he realized he definitely welcomed it. Stretching his arm out across the bed, he realized he was reaching out to nobody. He blinked his eyes open slowly and looked to his left only to not see Kurt sitting next to him. Rubbing his eyes and gaining his bearings before getting out of bed, he climbed out of the side of the bed and stumbled down the hall, following the familiar scent of pancakes and syrup.

Turning the corner into the kitchen he saw Kurt standing at the counter in his boxers, flipping pancakes on the stove in front of him. Blaine walked up behind him and wrapped his hand around his waist, resting his chin on Kurt's shoulder. Kurt pressed himself back into Blaine's body and rested his head back on Blaine's shoulder, kissing his cheek.

Blaine hummed in appreciation and felt himself get a smile much larger than he was used to recently.

"Good morning to you too" Kurt said, winking and going back to making breakfast

Blaine didn't move his head from Kurt's shoulder, and just kept himself pressed on his back, he loved the warmth he provided, and based off of Kurt's reaction he didn't seem to mind.

"So.. When do you have to pick up Eli?" Blaine asked, hating the idea of having to leave after such a great night.

"Britt said she would call me when they were done with breakfast, and since it's sunday, and since I know Britt, I'm sure that won't be until at least 9:30 or so. Why?"

"I just want to know how much more time I have with you today" Blaine said, hoping it sounded a lot less pathetic than he thought it did.

Kurt's face lit up at that and when he turned around with red cheeks, Blaine felt a little feeling in his stomach, one he hadn't felt in so long that it felt foreign. When Kurt saw Blaine basically analyzing his facial expression he turned back around and continued working on the pancakes, forcing the smile away.

"Uh yeah I'm not sure, I guess we'll just have to wait for Britt to text me, Eli said he wanted to spend all day just watching movies with me and have a fun little lazy sunday. We haven't gotten a chance to do that in a really long time." Kurt said, the love for his son prevalent throughout the entire time he was talking.

"That sounds like fun! I do those with Cooper to this day" Blaine said, thinking fondly of his brother.

"Cooper is your brother right?" Kurt asked, not wanting to mix him up with some fictional character that he could potentially be jealous of in the future.

"Yeah, that's him." Blaine said, hoping the awkward moment from a few seconds ago was gone.

"Pancakes are done!" Kurt said, happy that he could finally finish them and have a conversation with Blaine without him staring at his ass the whole time. Not that he wasn't flattered, but he knew he was looking.

Kurt turned and walked to the table with three plates, one for each of them and one with 8 pancakes stacked on top of it, as he placed it Blaines eyes almost bulged out of their sockets.

"You think we can eat this many pancakes?"

As Kurt was coming back to the table with utensils and syrup, he laughed at the expression on Blaine's face.

"No dummy, I made extra in case we want some later or if Eli wants some when he gets home." Kurt said, unable to take how adorable Blaine looked.

"Hey, no need to call me a dummy, that hurts my feelings." Blaine said, feigning hurt.

"Oh I'm sorry, want me to kiss it and make it better?"

"That sure would help me" Blaine said, unable to suppress a chuckle

At that, Kurt leaned in and kissed him on the lips, one that turned very heated very quickly. Before anything could get too serious Kurt heard his phone start ringing and snapped back to reality.

He pulled away from Blaine's lips, feeling him chasing, and wanting to continue but feeling like he shouldn't.

When he got to his phone he saw a text from Ashley at his store.

 _Kurt! We are down two people in the middle of one of the dumbest rushes I've ever seen, I didn't know who else to text! Can you help us out?_ \- Ashley

"Fuck…" Kurt said, louder than he thought he did

"What's wrong?" Blaine said, assuming that wasn't the audible response he would hear if that was Brittany texting him.

"I deserve a fucking raise." Kurt said, resting his head on his hands and rubbing his eyes with his palms.

"What happened?" Blaine asked again

"My work needs me to come in, they're drowning and are down two people."

"Oh fuck that sucks." Blaine said, knowing he was selfish for just wanting to keep Kurt there for the whole day.

"I don't care about that as much as the fact that I don't have anyone to watch Eli, Britt told me she is busy this afternoon and Ashley is the only other person I'm ever able to get to babysit for me and she's the one that just texted me."

Blaine knew the response from what he was about to say could either be great, or make him feel really bad about himself. But he knew he was going to say it anyway.

"I… I could watch him for you if you want?"

"What?" Kurt asked, amazed at the fact that someone would be willing to do that, much less someone he was only sort of dating.

"I mean. He's a really cool kid and we get along and you know he's already met me so it won't be weird and like we could go to the park or something or I could take him to my apartment and we could watch movies or something cause you know I have Charlie and I've got stuff at my apartment for him because he spends some time over there and -"

He was cut off by a kiss to his lips, feeling himself smile and sink into it. He knew he would never get tired of Kurt's lips, as long as Kurt kissed him he would kiss him back.

"What was that for?" Blaine said, catching his breath.

"I figured that was the only way to get you to stop talking." Kurt said, kneeling next to Blaine and resting his head on his armrest, looking up at him with the most beautiful eyes Blaine had ever seen.

" _He has to know how beautiful he is.. Right?"_ Blaine thought to himself.

"Would you really do that for me though? Watch Eli?" Kurt asked, worry seeping into his voice.

"I mean yeah, of course I would. And hey, maybe Cooper and Liz want the Sunday off and I can arrange a last minute playdate for Charlie and Eli." Blaine said thinking out loud, internally questioning himself on whether or not he could handle two children at once.

"Oh my god Eli would love that, I just… I don't know." Kurt said.

It's not that he didn't like Blaine, he REALLY liked Blaine, just the idea of having to trust someone with his baby boy was really difficult for him to come to terms with. The only reason he was able to trust Brittany rather quickly is because he had known her since he was fourteen and she was also the mother of the child.

"Kurt please trust me with this, I want to be able to help you out." Blaine said, starting to form the most adorable puppy eyes at Kurt.

"Fine, but I want you to text me like every hour, I won't be there for super long but I want to know that my boy is okay."

"That's fine, I'll text you as many times as you want until you get annoyed by me texting you."

Kurt laughed at that and began to set up plans for the day, more for himself than for anyone else. He texted Brittany and told her that Blaine would be waiting for Eli at his apartment for her, and told her to tell Eli that Blaine was going to be there so that it wouldn't scare Eli about where his daddy was. Apparently the reaction from Eli that he was going to spend the day with Blaine was ecstatic, and although Kurt was glad that Eli was going to be comfortable, he felt that little pang that maybe Eli liked Britt or Blaine more than he liked him.

He quickly stopped those thoughts knowing there was no way that that was true, he was his dad after all, and they had been through a lot together.

He then called his store and told them he would be coming in as soon as possible to help with the rush and the aftermath and then would be leaving soon afterwards.

He left the apartment telling Blaine again everything there was to know about Eli, and that if he wanted to stay in the apartment he could because it was the place Eli was most comfortable. The same speech he was repeating the entire time he was getting ready while Blaine was watching him, paying specific attention to the part where he was getting dressed.

A time period where Kurt felt aroused and also annoyed that Blaine might have not been listening to what he was saying when it was so important to him. But once it got to the point where Blaine could list Eli's allergies and his favorite toy Kurt figured Eli was in relatively good hands.

Blaine had to practically push him out of the door telling him he would call the store if anything went wrong.

He felt weird being in Kurt's apartment without him being there, especially because they had only known each other for about 3 months. He wasn't about to go looking through Kurt's stuff, but once he sat on the couch he starting thinking about their relationship, if you could call it that, and wondering where in the hell they were.

He started thinking about earlier when Kurt cut himself off almost as if it was instinct to not reveal anything too personal or too emotional about himself, what was he afraid of? Does he do this with everyone? Does he have anyone that he can talk to about anything? He doesn't really mention ever having any friends, the only external people he had referenced were people at work, Britt, and the few family he did mention.

He also started thinking about how hard it was for Kurt to let Blaine just watch Eli for only two or so hours. Obviously it was his son, and he meant the world to Kurt, that made sense. But Blaine almost had to beg just for Kurt to maybe let him. He had watched Charlie countless times, did Kurt think that Blaine wasn't responsible enough to watch his son? Or did he not trust Blaine?

Just before he could whirlwind himself into a much less fun train of thought, he heard the doorbell ring, which he assumed, correctly to be Brittany with Eli.

They exchanged an awkward interaction which involved Eli jumped up to Blaine and hugging him excitedly, leaving Britt to just watch the affection Eli had to this relative stranger.

Unless he wasn't a stranger? Brittany thought. Is this guy really that close with Kurt that he was willing to let him take care of the most important person in his life? Brittany left with more questions with answers leaving Blaine and Eli alone in Kurt's apartment.

"So buddy, what do you want to do for the next few hours while your daddy's at work?" Blaine asked, helping him get his backpack off and walking with him to his room.

"I dunno" Eli said, visibly sad again.

Blaine put his backpack in the corner of the room and sat on the bed, while Eli was sitting on the floor, mindlessly moving his cars around.

"What's wrong Eli?" Blaine asked, moving to the floor and sitting against the bed.

"I miss my daddy" Eli said

Blaine felt his heart melt at this, and wanted to do anything he could to make the boy feel better.

"I know you do buddy, and I know you wanted to have that movie day right?" Blaine asked, letting Eli nodd and continuing.

"How about this, we'll grab a few movies from here that you like, go to the market and grab stuff to make lunch, go back to my home and set up an all day movie marathon for when your daddy gets off work?"

Eli's face seemed happier than Blaine had ever seen it, and he bounced up in excitement.

"Yeah! I can't wait! Daddy will be so surprised!" Eli said

And with that they packed up Eli's backpack with movies and a few of his favorite toys and set off to the market.

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

 **Alright so I know that was a weird place to cut it off but I felt like the chapter was kind of going on long enough, but be prepared for some more fluff in the next chapter. Also, I know i've been gone forever but I just want to say this…**

 **Last night i went to see Lea Michele and Darren Criss in concert and it was SO GOOD OH MY GOD IT WAS AMAZING!**

 **They opened with Broadway Baby, and then Lea performed "Don't rain on my Parade" and "Cannonball" and "Run to you" and a few other ones and then Darren came back out and opened his own mini set with "Cough Syrup" by Young the Giant and then he did ALL STAR? LIKE ALL STAR BY SMASH MOUTH! But he had his own Darren spin on it and it was hilarious and absolutely amazing. (just an FYI Darren is WAY cuter in person, like it was crazy, I couldn't believe it.) and then he did "Foolish thing" (my personal all time favorite song of darrens, if you haven't listened to it you should cause it's amazing) and he did "I Dreamed A Dream", "Teenage Dream" and it was just all so incredible I couldn't believe i was so lucky to go see them and I figured that if i was going to share that anywhere it would be on this website and specifically this thread of stories right? So yea i know nobody probably read this far but if you did I appreciate you and leave a review, tell me what you think, or just be one of those lurkers, i'm honestly fine with that too, i appreciate everyone that reads everything and I love you all aaand bye**

 **Ryder**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hi everyone! Sorry about such a long space between chapters, I hope you all had a fantastic thanksgiving and new year! I know that I have said that I really wanted to upload more, but as is life.. Shit happens. I didn't even open this website for months in a row at a time, I don't really know why but I just didn't have as much of a pull to the website and the stories as I did previous. I would like to start writing a bit more often but I really couldn't say how often this story will be updated from now forth. I really hope you all enjoy!**

 **Ryder**

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

"Blaine! Can we get ice cream?" Eli asked, excitedly pulling on Blaine's sweatshirt.

"I don't know Eli, I don't think your dad will want me to get you full of sugar before lunch."

"But Blaine! It's rocky road! That's like my favoritest ice cream ever!"

"Favorite" Blaine corrected, trying to turn the topic of conversation.

"Blaineeee pleaseee" Eli begged

Blaine knelt down to Eli's level and put one of his hands on Eli's shoulder.

"Eli, do you like me?"

"Of course I do Blainey"

Instead of freaking out because Eli called him "Blainey" and adoring him when he said it, even though he had hated that name since he was his age, he decided against it. He could freak out to Kurt later.

"Well, I really like you too."

"Yay!" Eli said, jumping at the fact.

"I also like your daddy a lot too, and since this is the first time I'm ever babysitting you, I don't want to make your daddy upset, because then I might not be able to anymore."

"I don't want that" Eli, said, pouting

"Neither do I, so how about we finish grabbing stuff for lunch and go see your dad."

"Okay Blaine!" Eli said, his emotions changing rather rapidly, and then hugging Blaine and putting his arms around his neck.

Blaine had no idea that Eli was going to do that, but he knew that he was slowly falling in love with this kid and he knew there wasn't going to be much of a way to stop it.

Blaine caught himself in his own thoughts, thinking about what it would be like if this were a routine, where Kurt, Eli, and himself would go shopping for groceries and have lunch together on saturdays after Kurt got off work. When he would have time off from the law firm, or maybe quit all together.

He caught himself in his thoughts and shook his head.

"You're getting way too fucking ahead of yourself Blaine, relax. Right now your just his nanny at this point. Stop thinking like that or you will just end up hurt like last time." He kept repeating to himself in his head as they walked up to the register.

He didn't even notice the rather attractive guy ringing up their groceries. Blaine snuck a look at his nametag and noticed that his name was Michael. He was wearing a red and black flannel with plain blue jeans and an apron over his shirt. He did notice however, that Michael kept sneaking glances at him while he was ringing him up and bagging their items.

"How old is your son?" He asked Blaine, making his heart sink.

"Oh no he's not my -"

"I'm seven!" Eli exclaimed, proud of himself.

"Wow! You're a big boy now aren't you?" Michael said, apparently not catching on to the beginning of what Blaine was trying to say. Or maybe deciding to ignore it.

"I'm eight in exactly thirteen days!"

"Wow! That's awesome buddy! Happy early birthday!"

"Thank you" Eli said, smugly, as if he was the only person in the world that had a birthday, making Blaine chuckle.

"Single dad? That's gotta be hard."

" _Did he just wink at me? Is he hitting on me? What makes him think i'm a single dad? What if my wife was at work or something? Wait shit it's saturday. How do i get out of this?"_

"Oh no he's not my son, I'm just watching him for a… friend" Blaine said, not quite sure what they were yet.

"Oh. Well in that case, would you mind if I got your number?"

Blaine had always been terrible at this sort of thing, he hated rejecting people, seeing the look on their face if he said no.

"Sure, do you have a pen?"

Michael quickly grabbed a pen and small notecard and handed it to Blaine, not even worried about the woman huffing and puffing waiting in line with her two whole items.

Blaine finished writing his number down, got his card back, grabbed the bags of groceries, and got out as quickly as possible.

Blaine grabbed Eli's hand as they walked through the parking lot. He loaded the bags into the trunk while Eli climbed into the carseat that Kurt had loaned Blaine for the day.

"Hey Blaine?" Eli said from the back seat.

"Whats up Eli?" Blaine responded, looking at him through the rearview mirror.

"Why did you give that guy your phone number?"

Blaine had no idea how to respond to that, he forgot Eli was even standing there with him while that interaction was taking place.

"Don't worry about it Eli, it doesn't matter." Blaine said, not trying to sound harsh, he just really had no idea how to respond to that question, he was just hoping that Eli wouldn't bring it up with Kurt, unwittingly making him upset.

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

After a somewhat uncomfortable ride home in the car, Blaine and Eli enjoyed their lunch together and set off to go meet Kurt at work instead of waiting for him.

As they were in the car Eli brought up the grocery store again,

"Hey Blaine?" he said, in a scared small voice, which Blaine recognized immediately as different.

He turned when he got to a stoplight and turned his head to Eli and said

"Whats up buddy?"

Eli started playing with his hands in his lap and looked down,

"Since you gave that guy your number, are you gonna stop talking to me and daddy and go talk to him instead?"

Blaine's heart sunk as he had to turn around and continue driving again at the persistence of the people driving behind him honking for him to move.

He didn't turn his head but reached his right hand back to where Eli could reach it and said

"Buddy, grab my hand."

Eli did as he said and grabbed Blaine's hand, and squeezed one of his fingers.

"I like you and your daddy very much Eli, you don't have to worry about me being gone."

"Okay, cause I already losted one mommy I don't want to lose you too."

Blaine got choked up, and had to process what he was saying and all of the thoughts and emotions running through his head at once. He had no idea that Eli even really grasped the idea that Britt had left at one point. Maybe he thought that she didn't love him anymore? He wasn't even worried about correcting his grammar at that point.

"You didn't lose your mommy, you saw her the other day buddy." Blaine said, trying to figure out exactly where Eli's head was at.

"I know, but I still don't really have a mommy, She left a long time ago and she just came back. What if you leave and then don't come back for a long time?"

Blaine's emotions were running wild at this point and he had no idea what to say, he figured he just had to go with his gut.

"Well Eli, I can't tell you for sure what's going to happen in the future, and I think you're a smart enough boy to know that that's true." He started, looking in the rearview mirror to see Eli nodding along, his face deadpan, showing not too much emotion. Something he saw as very reminiscent of Kurt.

He decided to continue, "With that said, I do know that I really like you and your daddy a whole lot, I think you know that too." He looked again in the rearview mirror to see Eli nodding again and kept talking, thinking he was doing alright

"I don't want to think about possibly not seeing you anymore, but I do know that I'm going to do whatever I can to make it so that I get to keep on talking to you and your daddy for a long time."

Eli then started giving a small smile, which Blaine got to peek at in the rearview mirror again.

"I want that too Blainey" Eli said.

Eli calling him Blainey fille his heart with emotions once again and he knew he really didn't want to lose this boy any time soon.

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: As always, I would like to apologize for irregularity between chapters, I think i've gotten to the point where I've read or reread just about every lengthy fanfic i can find between Klaine, so now it's time for me to finally finish my own.**

 **BUT! If anyone has fic recommendations to read please leave them in a review comment or feel free to DM me on Fanfic. All of the stories i've read are listed in my favorites tab on my profile so if you need anything else to read you can always check there.**

 **I just finished re-reading "Syrup and Honey" from LauGS, she is such a great writer i highly suggest checking her stuff out if you've never heard of her.**

 **Also, just to answer a question. Ghearted asked: "Howdy from a new reader. I'm enjoying your story and do hope you keep getting the inspiration to update chapters regularly. One inconsistency I noticed in chapter 15...I didn't think Eli knew that Brit was his mum but here he did. But maybe i missed it somewhere? Ok happy writing! Thx"**

 **If i did mix that up i'm sorry, it gets quite a while between chapters and it might have just slipped my mind, but Britt is in fact Elis mother, sorry if i messed that up!**

 **Okay sorry for the stupid long authors note, if you got this far into it thank you all for reading and much love to all of yall**

 **Ryder**

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

Blaine and Eli walked into Kurt's store, expecting him to be behind the counter so that he could see them when they came in, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Excuse me ma'am?" Blaine asked the woman at the bar, with a name tag that appeared to say _Ash_

"Yes? How can I help you sir?" She replied

"Uhh is Kurt Hummel here by any chance? I'm supposed to be meeting him."

"High Ashley!" Eli chimed in, still holding Blaine's hand but being too short to be seen from Ashley's side of the counter.

Blaine lifted Eli up to be sitting at his waist while he grabbed onto his shoulder.

Ashley looked at him and then finally realized it was Eli that Blaine was holding.

"Oh my goodness hi Eli!" Ashley said, leaning over the bar to give him a high five, which he returned gladly.

"Sorry sir, don't take this the wrong way, but who are you?" Ashley asked, doing her best to not sound rude as hell.

"Oh sorry, I'm Blaine." he said, holding out his hand to shake in greeting. Realizing how odd it must be for some stranger to be holding Kurt's kid. Kurt's kid who clearly knew this Ashley girl.

"Oh! I see." She said, extending the last word, finally realizing who Blaine was to Kurt.

"What?!" Blaine said, already feeling himself blushing.

"You're Kurt's… friend" Saying the word _friend_ in air quotes. She started laughing when he started blushing harder.

"Yes I am Kurt's friend." he said, not wanting to embarrass himself further but also not knowing if he should say 'boyfriend' in front of Eli or in Kurt's store in general. You never know where a homophobic asshole can be lurking.

"Oh sorry! Totally forgot why you were here for a second Blaine, let me get Kurt for you. He's just working on the next weeks schedule in the back. I'll get him for you."

As she started walking away she got an idea.

"Hey come with me to the other side of the bar and wait by the door, I want you to scare Kurt."

Eli jumped at that idea immediately off of Blaine's side and ran over with her. Knowing Blaine didn't really have a choice he tagged along to the other side, and either way, he wanted to see Kurt.

They walked over to the door that opens outward, and let Ashley call for Kurt. Leaning on the door and peaking into the back Ashley said, "Hey Kurt. There's two people here that want to speak to the manager, they haven't told me why yet."

Blaine heard an audible sigh and heard Kurt grumbling something under his breath, obviously not in the mood to talk to customers, but they weren't just any customers.

Kurt walked out to the front with Ashley asking her where they were, not seeing Blaine and Eli behind the door. Before Blaine could even say anything Eli ran around the door and hugged his dad around the legs, pushing him back with the unexpected force.

"Hi daddy!" Eli just about yelled. Alerting the whole store to his presence if they didn't notice him already.

"Oh my god!" Kurt said, holding his hand to his chest, very obviously scared and confused.

Once Kurt's brain caught up with what was happening he picked Eli up and hugged him tight, obviously happy to see his son. Then he realized that Blaine had to be there too. He removed his head from Eli's hair and looked for Blaine, seeing him standing tentatively to the side, letting Kurt and Eli have their moment.

"Hi." Blaine said, shyly.

Kurt lifted Eli up to his waist and looked at Blaine, feeling all the stress from the day just lifting from his shoulders. How is it that this wonderful man could just make him forget every possible annoying thing in his life?

"Hi" Kurt said, unable to suppress the grin he got at seeing Blaine again. Kurt didn't know if it was a good idea but he didn't care, he leaned in and gave Blaine a chaste kiss on the lips. Surprising the other man, but appreciating that he responded once he realized what was happening.

"Thank you for watching Eli today, I can't thank you enough." Kurt said, feeling the blush on his cheeks at just kissing his almost sort of boyfriend in his store. Hoping no homophobic customers saw, but also not being able to care.

"Ah it was nothing! I loved hanging out with this little guy." Blaine said, ruffling Eli's hair and giving him a high five.

"Yeah! Blaine was super fun to hang out with! We went to the store, and got ice cream, and cooked lunch, and then watched a movie before we came to see you! Can Blaine babysit me again some time please!" Eli said, right in Kurt's ear.

Blaine was hoping that Kurt didn't hear him say ice cream, but when Kurt just nodded along he either didn't hear Eli through the fast speech or he didn't care. Blaine was appreciative of whatever the result was that didn't get Kurt mad at him.

"As long as Blaine wants to, he is more than welcome to babysit you when he can." Kurt said, looking over to Blaine for silent confirmation, feeling his heart jump when Blaine smiled and eagerly nodded.

Kurt realized that he was about to be off his shift, and since he didn't even schedule himself today he figured it wouldn't be so bad to leave a little bit early, especially because he came in in such a panic.

"Ash!" Kurt said, continuing when Ashley made eye contact with him once he came back out from the back room.

"I just clocked out, I'm going to head out early and spend the rest of my sunday with my boys." Kurt said, hoping Blaine didn't freak out at the slight term of endearment.

"No worries! Have fun Kurt. Thank you again for coming in on such short notice, best boss ever."

"Hmm I don't know about that.." Kurt said, laughing.

"Bye Ashley!" Eli said turning around, now holding Blaine's hand as they were walking out.

"Bye little guy! And Bye Eli!" She said, starting to laugh loudly.

Blaine was about to turn around but saw Kurt doing everything he could to cover his mouth to stop his laugh but just couldn't do it. Blaine had been hearing short jokes all his life but when he got to see Kurt laugh he didn't even care.

Blaine just laughed along with it and waved with his middle finger back at Ashley, being sure to laugh while he was doing so so she knew he was kidding. She laughed again and waved as they closed the door on their way out.

"So…" Kurt said, as they got to Kurt's car, wanting Blaine to come back to their place or to go to his place for dinner. But not knowing if Blaine would even want to.

"I really want to see you for dinner." Blaine started, "but I have to go home to finalize some work that i've been putting off all weekend before work tomorrow." Blaine said, obviously not thrilled at the fact that he was going to be separated from Eli and Kurt.

"It's okay, no worries." Kurt said, not wanting to show that he was upset. "You spent the whole weekend with us anyway, you deserve some time to yourself." Kurt said.

Blaine opened the door and said goodbye to Eli, apologizing about not being able to do some movie marathon? Kurt couldn't hear him very well.

"Hey," Blaine whispered, grabbing Kurt around the waist and pulling him close, Eli already in his carseat, occupying himself with a book.

"I really enjoyed this weekend with you," Blaine said, still whispering. "I hate being in my apartment alone, knowing that I just have a two day period before having to go back to work and deal with my horrible father again and have him berate me constantly."

Kurt blushed at the fact that Blaine liked spending time with them, but also felt bad that Blaine had to deal with such a horrible father. With a dad like Burt he couldn't imagine his dad not approving of his sexuality.

"Seriously Kurt, this has been a great weekend. And I really want to see you at some point in this week, you make me really happy." Blaine said, leaning in and kissing Kurt on the lips.

Once he pulled away, Kurt could feel his cheeks were completely red, but he didn't care.

"I really want to see you too." Kurt said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Alright, if I don't go now i'm just going to jump in the car with you and come to your house and never leave, I'll see you soon Kurt." Blaine said, with a kiss to Kurt's cheek and squeezing his hand one more time, before walking away to his car.

Kurt sat leaning against the door for just a second before realizing that his son was just sitting in his car waiting for him. Blaine was the first guy to make him be able to just forget about anything and everything when he was with him, even his own son.

"Hey buddy, sorry about that. I was just saying bye to Blaine" Kurt said, climbing into the driver's seat while looking into the rearview mirror at Eli.

"It's okay daddy." Eli said

Kurt started driving and realized that Eli really looked like he wanted to ask him something, but wasn't sure if he should ask. He kept fidgeting in his seat and opening his mouth to say something but closing it right away.

"What's wrong buddy?" Kurt said, looking at Eli right in the eyes through the rearview mirror once they got to a red light.

"It's nothing daddy" Eli said, obviously lying.

"Elliot." Kurt said, knowing that that was all he needed to get him to start talking.

"Is Blaine your boyfriend?" Eli rushed out, not knowing if it was something he should ask or not.

Kurt was kind of taken aback at the question, but figured it was coming sooner or later.

"I don't know buddy, I kind of want him to be, as long as you don't have a problem with that." Kurt asked, hoping Eli really did like Blaine.

"That would be awesome!" Eli said, and then turning back into being quiet, obviously still thinking.

"What else is there Eli?" Kurt said, pulling into his parking spot out front of their apartment

"It's nothing." Eli said again, hoping that he would get away with it.

Kurt stopped the engine and turned around to face Eli directly. Not even needing to say anything to get Eli to start talking again. He knew his son so well and he loved it.

"It's just that Blaine gave this guy his number I think at the grocery store I think his name was Michael or something I don't know I couldn't see his name tag that well but then he kept on talking to Blaine and then he asked me how old I was and the thought Blaine was my daddy and then Blaine scribbled something onto a piece of paper and then we walked out, and then he told me not to tell you." Eli rushed out, trying to get every single detail.

Kurt turned around, trying to process all of the information his son threw at him at once. Blaine gave a guy his number? " _What the fuck Blaine_ ' Kurt thought. He knew Eli wouldn't lie to him about something like that, he also knew Eli probably wouldn't just come up with that elaborate of a lie just for shits and giggles. Which means that it was probably true? Did Blaine just happen to give another guy his number right in front his own son, while they were kind of developing a thing? Was Kurt not quick enough to cemente what they had? What if they got together and Blaine cheated on him? Blaine wasn't that kind of guy though right?

Kurt finally realized that Eli was calling for him and snapped back into reality.

"Sorry buddy, what did you say?" Kurt said, turning back around to him.

"Are you mad at me?" Eli asked, obviously worried he was going to be in trouble.

"Oh of course not buddy, you're not in trouble at all, don't worry about that okay?" Kurt said, walking out of the car and going to the back row to get Eli out of his seat to hug him.

Kurt walked up to their apartment with Eli's hand in his and let Eli go watch a movie in the living room while he figured out dinner. He opened the fridge and got some stuff out to make pasta for Eli and a salad for himself, realizing that he hadn't eaten much for lunch, he made a little extra pasta for himself. He looked over at the counter and saw a little note.

 _Hey Kurt, You're beautiful :)_

 _Blaine_

Kurt laughed and couldn't help but hold the note close to his chest. Why was his heart beating at a mile a minute just because of a small note?

He decided not to be mad at Blaine and gave him a chance to explain himself, there was no way someone as caring and amazing as Blaine would cheat on him, there had to be a logical reason behind it. Kurt thought to himself, hoping that he was right. Even though they had just started seeing each other, Kurt had a really good feeling about Blaine, which scared him a lot. The more he liked Blaine and the more Eli started to like Blaine, the more difficult it would be if Blaine left.

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

Blaine decided to take a detour on his way home to see Cooper and the family before he spent the rest of his night doing work. He knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. Cooper opened the door surprised, but happy nonetheless to see his little brother.

"Blainers!" Cooper said, hugging Blaine, laughing when Blaine punched him for using one of the nicknames he hated.

He couldn't stay mad at him though. "Hey Coop." Blaine said, looking around the house for Charlie and Liz.

"They're in the backyard, let's go." Cooper said, already knowing what Blaine was thinking.

They walked out to the backyard door and Blaine saw Charlie and Liz playing pass with a soccer ball. Blaine couldn't help but see himself there instead of Liz and Eli there instead of Charlie. He shook the thought out of his head immediately, and walked out to say hi to two of his favorite people.

"Blaine!" Charlie yelled. Running up to him and jumping to his arms while he was crouched on the ground. Knocking him back falling onto the ground.

"Hey buddy! How's my favorite nephew in the world?" Blaine said, ecstatic to his Charlie again.

"Aren't I your only nephew Uncle Blaine?" Charlie said, causing all three adults to laugh.

"Yes you are, but you're also my favorite." Blaine said, tickling Charlie and causing him to laugh and squirm on the ground.

Blaine stood up laughing and hugged Liz warmly.

"Hi Liz, how is the most beautiful woman in Ohio?" Blaine said, laughing as Cooper hummed in agreement in the background.

She pulled away laughing, "I'm doing great, how about you Blainers?"

Blaine knew he was supposed to be mad at that nickname, but it was about as difficult to be mad at her for using it as it was for Cooper, he just couldn't be mad at them.

"I'm great!" Blaine said, and for the first time in a long time it was genuine.

"Hmm would that have anything to do with the amazing Kurt Hummel?" Liz asked, as they walked back into the kitchen, grabbing lemonade and sitting down at the table, while Charlie ran into the living room to play with his toys.

"I'm willing to bet that has all to do with it." Cooper said, winking at Blaine.

"Ew Coop don't wink about me, especially involving my romantic life" Blaine said, causing cooper and Elizabeth to start laughing.

"And yes, however he is most of the reason as to why I'm happy right now, along with the fact that I have a great brother, sister and nephew too." Blaine said, causing a chorus of "Aww"s from the couple across from him.

"So what has you stopping by Blaine?" Cooper said, genuinely confused as to why Blaine wasn't with Kurt right now.

"Well I spent like the whole weekend with Kurt and Eli, but I have to go home and do some prep work for tomorrow and this week, so I had to cancel our sunday plans, and I decided to stop by and say hi before I went home." Blaine said, obviously not thrilled about the fact that he had to work rather than be with Kut.

"That sucks little bro, you seem to be taking a liking to this Kurt guy fast. I'm happy for you but I'm kind of worried." Cooper didn't want his brother to get his heart broken again, he wasn't sure how he would come out if he got his heart broken by a guy he got smitten with so quickly, even after he swore off dating.

"I'm worried too Coop, trust me." Blaine started, "But he's just so great, he gets me. He is so caring and funny and we get along so well. And conversation is never boring, and his son is so much fun to be around you would love him. I don't know, and Kurt's laugh is just so infectious I just smile whenever I think about it." Blaine said, blushing and trying to hide his smile.

"Oh god, he's fallen head over heels hasn't he?" Liz said, pretending to whisper but obviously not trying to be quiet at all.

"He definitely has." Cooper said, laughing.

"Shut up I have not, he is just really cool, and you guys should meet him and his son because they are great." Blaine said, genuinely wanting them to meet. If Kurt got Coopers approval it would mean a lot. Coopers been really hard on the people Blaine has ever taken an interest in since _he who shall not be named._

"We would love to meet him Blaine." Liz chimed in.

"Seriously, you arrange it and we'll be there." Cooper said, knowing how much it meant to his brother.

"I will try and get that to happen as soon as possible. But right now I really do have some work to do." Blaine said, getting up from the table, and giving Cooper and Liz tight hugs, with a promise for them to meet Kurt soon.

Blaine walked into the living room and gave Charlie a final hug before he got back into his car.

"Great, another lonely night in my apartment doing work." Blaine said to himself as he was driving home, not anticipating enjoying the rest of his sunday. He knew it was his fault because he procrastinated it but he still really didn't want to do it.

He checked his phone once he finished work and the time said 12:14 AM. He knew it was too late for Kurt to be up, but he decided to send him a text to wake up to in the morning.

 _Hey Kurt, just finished up my work, I'm tired as fuck but I wanted to say good night anyway. I had a great weekend and I definitely want to see you again this week. ;)_

Before he could even think about it he hit send, knowing that if he thought about it he would be up for an extra hour figuring out what the right text would be to send.

He got out of the shower to his phone lighting up, and seeing an incoming text from Kurt.

"That's weird" He thought to himself. He assumed that Kurt would be asleep by now considering that Eli had to get up so early for school, and himself for work.

 _I had a great time too, I'll let you know tomorrow how my schedule this week is, it might be hectic as shit but I want to see you too._

Blaine smiled at the text and sent his final goodnight falling asleep with a smile on his face, even though he wished he was falling asleep in Kurt's arms.

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

 **AN: Okay so I know this chapter was a bit longer than the other chapters I've posted to this story but i figure nobody will mind? I don't know how many people still even keep up with this story but if you are somehow reading this I hope you enjoyed and please let me know what you thought! I want to upload this more but I'm not going to say that i'm going to keep to a specific schedule. I sure as hell will upload when I can though, b/c i love this story.**

 **Happy reading!**

 **Ryder**


	17. Chapter 17

**AN: Hey yall Thank you for all of the kind comments on the last chapter, i really appreciate it. I can't believe people are still reading this story, much love to all you guys, enjoy the chapter :)**

 **Oh quick FYI there's a little bit of offensive language in this chapter ( i'm guessing you know who it's going to come from ) but i'm just throwing that out there as a warning.**

 **Ryder**

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

Blaine woke up early the next morning to his alarm and instinctively reached out for Kurt without opening his eyes. When his arm hit nothing he realized he was back in his own home, alone, having to get ready to deal with his father for the next five consecutive days. He opened his eyes and stretched before getting out of bed and getting into the shower immediately. Setting his iphone on outside the shower with his bluetooth speaker and playing his playlist, grinning when Teenage Dream came on, singing it loudly.

He got out of the shower and got dressed in his favorite suit, hoping to make him a little more mentally ready for the day. It was a navy blue two piece suit with a black tie and a white collared shirt underneath.

" _This is the same outfit I wore the day I met Kurt_ " He thought to himself before going into the bathroom to finish getting ready.

He looked at himself in the mirror and gelled his hair down as best as he could, knowing that before he left work his curls would be springing free. He walked over to his bed where he threw his phone and saw a new message from Kurt. Before doing anything else he immediately opened his phone.

 _Morning babe, I have a really busy week, I don't think I'll be able to see you till friday, I'll let you know if anything changes though, call me at lunch, I know you don't want to see your dad xoxo - K_

Blaine grimaced at the mention of his father again but was elated when Kurt knew that he wouldn't want to see his dad, and that he wanted to talk to him to make sure he was okay. He hadn't had anyone to really care about him besides his brother and Liz in a long time, it was a really nice change of pace. He sat on the bed and read the text again, happy to have someone to wake up to, even if it wasn't in the physical form just yet.

It took him a second but when he reread the text he noticed something. _Did he just call me babe? Oh my god did he mean to do that? Did he do that to see what I would respond with? Does he think we are something? I hope we are something. Did the xoxo at the end mean anything? It had to have right, that literally only has one meaning behind it._

He realized it was way too early, especially without his coffee to be overthinking this much.

 _Alright, I'll call you at lunch, and if my meeting runs late I'll find another time to call you. I miss your voice already, and it hasn't even been 24 hours. - B_

He hoped that was enough. He really did miss his voice though. He missed Kurt's laugh and his smile and his eyes. He missed Eli too, he was always such a happy kid, he was hoping he could honestly learn from him in that department.

He looked at the time and saw it was already 7:15, he could probably call Cooper and say hi to Charlie right?

He dialed the familiar number in his phone while he walked into the kitchen and started up his coffee. He had a little over an hour to make it into work, so he was able to actually take his time rather than tying his bowtie as he was sprinting out the door to make it. When the familiar voice of his brother answered a smile spread on his face immediately.

"Hey Coop! Good morning." Blaine said, maybe a little too happily on a monday morning.

"Ew, what do you want? Why are you so happy? I haven't even had my coffee yet Blaine." Cooper said, voice groggy as can be.

"Wow alright, I just wanted to say hi to Charlie anyway, is he awake?" Blaine asked, taking the coffee out of the Keurig.

He heard his brother mumble something and then some voices in the background before the voice of one of his favorite people filled the phone.

"Hi Uncle Blaine!" Charlie said, matching his excitement.

"Hey buddy!" Blaine said into the phone. Charlie made him so happy that he felt kind of ready to go to work today.

"Why are you calling Blainey? It's so early, you never call this early!" Charlie said, confused but obviously happy he got to talk to his uncle before he went to school.

"I just wanted to say hi to you and your mommy and daddy before I went to work, but I really wanted to talk to you. Hey if I can find a day this week to come over so we can read Harry Potter would you want to do that?" Blaine asked, moving the phone from his ear in preparation.

As expected, Charlie squealed into the phone a loud yes and telling Blaine all about how he had been trying to read it himself but it was really hard and that he had been wanting to read it with his dad but he said that it was just for him and Blaine.

Once Charlie rushed out everything in what seemed one breath, Blaine started laughing and told him that he would try and do it as soon as he could, hoping he could find time in the week to make it to his nephew. He also was really happy that Cooper didn't try to infringe on his little tradition he had with Charlie, he liked that him and Charlie had something that was just theirs, and that nobody else got to do.

His mind started wandering to doing that with Eli some day, and maybe with another kid with black curly hair running around with Eli in the backyard while him and Kurt were standing at the counter in their kitchen watching them.

Blaine shook his head and snapped back into reality, realizing that a much deeper voice was talking through the phone, and unless Charlie went through all of puberty in the last 45 seconds it was probably Cooper trying to tell him something relatively important.

"Blaine? Are you even listening to me?" Cooper said, obviously frustrated.

"Sorry sorry yeah I'm here, can you repeat that one more time?" Blaine said, finishing off his coffee and walking to his room to grab his suitcase and get ready to leave. He checked his watch and saw that it was only 7:45, he didn't need to be in till 8:30 today. Maybe he could stop by Kurt's store for a little bit before he had to go deal with his dad.

"I was saying that you should bring Kurt and his son…" Cooper said, forgetting his name.

"Eli" Blaine filled in.

"Thank you. You should bring Kurt and Eli for dinner over this week, me and Liz really wanna meet him." Cooper finished.

"Kurt said he was really busy this week, what day were you thinking?" Blaine said.

"I was thinking Wednesday." Cooper said. "But if he can't do it then we totally understand, we know he's busy."

"I'll ask him, I really want him to meet you guys too. I think you guys will hit it off, and I think him and Liz will love each other. He hasn't really made many friends since he's been here and since he's had Eli besides the girls at his store, I think you guys could be great for him, even if he's related to me." Blaine rambled on, not realizing he was saying so much.

"Sorry, I rambled again." Blaine said, knowing that Cooper had plenty of experience with him rambling.

"Wow…" Was Coopers only reply.

"What?" Blaine asked.

"You really love him don't you?" Cooper said, more as a statement than anything.

"What?! I don't even know if we are technically dating yet, like we kind of are and I spent a few nights with him but he is really really guarded about almost everything especially Eli. He gave up on dating cause almost every gay guy doesn't want to date a guy in his early twenties that also has a kid. He expected me to leave, I met Eli by accident." Blaine said, knowing that he was just trying to convince himself of the inevitable. He was getting into his car now, turning his phone onto speaker with his car radio system.

"Yea you love him." Coopers loud voice came through his car.

"Shut up Coop I don't love him, I do like him a lot though." Blaine said, trying to lie to himself more than anything. He had always wanted kids and a husband since he was young, the fact that Kurt's face was being filled into his fleeting daydreams didn't mean anything. Right?

"Yea yea sure baby bro, I'll believe it when I see it. I have to finish getting Charlie ready for school, let me know if he can make it on Wednesday, and even if he can't you should come over. You can read with Charlie after dinner." Cooper said. Shuffling around the kitchen.

"Alright Coop, I'll call you later." Blaine said. Starting his journey downtown, wanting to call in sick but knowing that would turn out worse for him than actually going into work. His dad would probably accuse him of getting drunk and sleeping with some "fag" and then yell at him to come into the office anyway.

He pushed all thoughts of his father out of his mind, amazed that he could torment him without even being in the same building as him. He finished his short ten minute commute to his building, parked in their parking garage, and then made the short walk to Kurt's store. Just thinking about Kurt made him happy, he hoped he was there early enough before the rush.

He pushed the door open and only saw a few people in line. Kurt standing at the bar focused on the drinks that he was making, with an unfamiliar guy standing behind the register. Blaine waited behind the few people in line and ordered his medium drip. He was about to pay before he heard a voice off to his left say.

"Don't charge him Danny." It was Kurt, Blaine turned and winked at Kurt, grinning when Kurt smiled back at him and motioned for him to move over to him.

He put the money for his coffee in the tip jar once he got his coffee and walked over to Kurt. Relaxing more and putting the thoughts of work to the back of his mind, at least for the next twenty minutes.

"Hey" Kurt almost whispered, clearly focusing but also happy that Blaine was there.

"Hey" Blaine said, voice wavering unintentionally. Nervous to ask Kurt about coming to meet Cooper.

"You ready for work today?" Kurt asked, finishing up the last drink on the bar and finally looking up at Blaine, seeing the emotion in his eyes, but he couldn't tell if that was because of his dad or because of something else.

Blaine nodded and smiled, feeling genuinely ready to deal with his dad with the help of Charlie and Kurt in his morning.

"Yea, just mentally preparing myself a little bit more before I have to go in, I don't have to be there for another half an hour or so. I talked to Charlie this morning and that made me feel a lot better." Blaine said, keeping his voice low, not wanting the other people in the store to overhear their conversation.

Kurt nodded in understanding. "How's Charlie doing? I haven't seen him since the day we met." Kurt asked, remembering the day happily.

"He's doing great, I haven't seen him too much in a little while but I love talking to him in the morning. I'm gonna be going to their house for dinner some time this week so that will be fun." Blaine said, afraid of actually asking Kurt to join him.

"Oh that sounds like fun! I know how much you love spending time with all of them." Kurt said.

Blaine just decided to ask before he backed out of it. "Yeah, Cooper asked about you on the phone this morning actually."

"Oh really? That's sweet. What'd he have to say?" Kurt said, scared about how happy he was that he had come up in a casual conversation between Blaine and his brother.

"He was actually wondering if you would be interested in going over to their house for dinner some time this week." Blaine said, tapping his fingers on the bar anxiously.

Kurt fell silent. He conveniently had a drink to make and walked over to the cold bar to make the iced coffee the person had requested to avoid Blaine for just a second.

 _He just asked me to go over to his brothers house for dinner. Isn't that something you would do in a relationship? Does he think this is a relationship? I want this to be a relationship. Does he want Eli to come?_

Blaine could see how tense Kurt was just by looking at his back, his heart sank a little bit when he realized that Kurt really didn't want to go, he obviously just didn't want to say no. If he didn't want to come he didn't have to.

"It's okay, you don't have to come if you don't want to. I know it was kind of weird to ask anyway.

Blaine turned and walked to the door, hoping Kurt would call for him and tell him to wait but he didn't. He got outside of the store and tried to figure out what he did in the last two minutes that made Kurt go from joyful to distant like that. He knew he would end up thinking about this all day unless getting actual work done. He put his headphones in and pocketed his phone, walking back to his building to get started on work early. Hoping he would be at least somewhat productive today.

He walked into the front lobby, nodded to Tom at the security desk, and got into the elevator. He pressed for the eleventh floor and tried to calm himself down by focusing on the music, instead of replaying the last 10 minutes in his head over and over again. When he started paying attention to the music he realized it was "Little Bit" by Timeflies and felt his shoulders relax just a _little bit_.

 _I have a little bit little bit little bit too much,_

 _Every time, I get a little bit little bit little bit too drunk_

 _But i'm fine, i have a little bit little bit little bit too much, but this time_

 _I'll be givin' it givin' it givin' it all up, for a little bit of you tonight._

Blaine got off the elevator and hummed to it on his way to his office. Nodding at Jessica, the only person on the floor that was at least polite to him despite his "choices" as his dad put it. He walked into this office and closed his door immediately, wanting as much time as possible to avoid his father, or anyone else for that matter, until he absolutely had to.

He was zoned into his most recent case, not paying any attention to the fact that his father had walked into his office, until he slammed a stack of papers on his desk, causing the younger man to jump in his chair in confusion.

"Morning Dad." Blaine said, not even caring enough to act pleased by his presence anymore.

"You fucked up the files in this case." His dad said, acting like that was how he should be talking to his son.

"I didn't, I triple checked them, and then had Jess look over them too just in case. They are fine dad." Blaine said, still skimming through the files on his computer.

"Look at me Blaine." His dad said, voice menacing.

Blaine looked up, staring into his eyes full of anger and hatred. _Towards his own fucking son._ Blaine thought to himself.

"Redo these files fag." His father said, aware of how much that word pissed Blaine off.

"Don't. Call me. That." Blaine said, tired of his father.

"Or what?" his father said, turning around, eyes venomous.

Blaine just kept his head down, knowing it wasn't worth it to get into it with him. Evan Anderson was a scary man, he knew it was better to let this moment pass over and just pretend like he was focusing on his work, even though he was just staring at his laptops screen willing him to go away.

After a few more excruciating seconds, he heard a small laugh and footsteps leading out of the door. He let out the breath he didn't know he was holding in and calmed himself down.

" _This is going to be such a long fucking day_ " he thought to himself as he got back to work.

The rest of the day was no better than the beginning of it. It was filled with meetings, passing insults from his father followed by laughter from their coworkers, sympathetic smiles from Jessica, the occasional text from Angela on the other floor to ask how he was doing with the promise to try and get lunch soon, and then more and more work.

He was glad that he had Jess and Angela, or he wasn't sure how he would get through work days at all, even though they didn't honestly do too much.

He looked at his watch and saw that it said 6:00, he packed his stuff up into his briefcase as fast as he could and bolted out of the building, wanting to get home as fast as he could.

The next day was the exact same, his father was still horrible, he still discredited all of the time and effort he put into his work, and he still hated his sexuality as if it was a mutable trait of his.

By Wednesday afternoon he felt emotionally and physically drained. He hadn't heard from or seen Kurt since Monday and was starting to get more worried than before. As if Kurt hadn't been plaguing his thoughts enough. At 3:00 he got a text though.

 _What time is dinner tonight? - K_

Blaine couldn't help the grin that came on his face immediately after reading that text.

 _7:00 - B_

 _Pick me up at 6:45? - K_

 _I'll be there - B_

He felt like getting up and dancing around his office, did he really not scare Kurt off? Was that not just the random ending to whatever it is that they were? Whatever it was that had happened, he was grateful. He finally had something to look forward to after work rather than just going home and staring blankly at the TV or reading in his bed to forget about his life at work.

He got right back to work, drowning himself in work for the next few hours, hoping it would speed up the time before he got to go and meet Kurt. He had to leave a little bit early to be able to make it home and then get ready to go pick up Kurt, but he didn't care what his dad said about it, it was rare for him to leave early anyway, he was usually the last to leave the office. He could just leave feigning illness or something.

He bounced out of the office and headed for his house, nervous and thrilled for whatever it was that the night was going to bring him.

 **AN: So the song "Little bit" is REALLY good and i suggest a listen if anyone hasn't already. That wasn't just a random song placement i just really love it and figured why not. Also i hope at least one person appreciated that pun a** _ **little bit**_ **hehe i make myself laugh too much.**

 **Alright happy monday peace out**

 **Ryder**


	18. Chapter 18

**AN: Hey guys! Sorry for the little bit of delay on this chapter, hit some mega writers block. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Also, I started working at starbucks again! So like i've been dealin with that and stuff. Even though i hit some writers block for this chapter I hope you guys enjoy it, it's been forever since i uploaded and i hate that.**

 **Ryder**

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

Kurt picked up Eli from after-school on tuesday and to his surprise saw Charlie there. Eli and Charlie were playing at one of the tables in the front room, and while Kurt was chatting to Jenny, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to find Cooper Anderson.

"Hi, Kurt right?" He said, hoping he wasn't bothering the wrong person.

"That's me." Kurt said, "Cooper right?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

"The one and only." He said, flashing a bright smile.

Eli and Charlie both started running to their respective parents and started giving them hugs, while Kurt was crouched down with Eli, Cooper tried to continue their conversation.

"Are you guys coming to dinner on Wednesday?" Cooper asked, holding Charlie on his waist.

Kurt immediately tensed up. He didn't want to say no to Cooper right now, but he wasn't sure if they were going at all.

"What's happening on Wednesday?" Eli said, looking up at his dad.

"Nothing buddy don't worry about it, why don't you go get your backpack." Kurt said, not missing the flash of disappointment on Coopers face. "I'm not sure if we are going to be able to make it." Kurt said, turning his full attention to Cooper as Charlie went off with Eli to grab their stuff.

"Are you sure? We would love to have you, and I'm sure Charlie would be thrilled to have Eli over." Cooper said, knowing how much this dinner meant to his brother.

"I appreciate the offer, but I don't know…" Kurt said. He had had too many bad relationships that he didn't want to solidify what he had with Blaine. He knew it would only turn out in disaster.

Kurt's face was completely stagnant. Cooper knew there was something behind the surface, but he honestly couldn't see what Blaine had seemed to be raving about for him. He seemed like kind of a jerk. What was he so scared of? Was he just leading Blaine on?

"Fine, but if you hurt my brother, you and I will have some words." Cooper said, knowing not to threaten him in front of a room full of children.

Kurt seemed taken aback by this though, because his eyes immediately shot open.

"Why would I hurt Blaine?" Kurt asked, turning around to look for his son.

"I don't know why you would hurt Blaine, he seems to be crazy about you. This is the happiest I've seen him in quite a long time. But right now I'm struggling to figure out why." Cooper said, noticing Charlie walk up next to him. "I hope you guys have a good rest of your night, and I hope to see you tomorrow." and with a final goodbye to Eli, the pair was off.

Cooper knew that he was probably stepping out of line, and he knew that because of that, Blaine was probably going to be pissed at him, but he was tired of seeing his brother not actually being happy.

Kurt on the other hand, was stuck on the one thing Cooper said, _This is the happiest i've seen him in a long time._ Was that really true? Did he really make Blaine happy? Just by spending time with him? Why was he so worried about what he was with Blaine? That was the point of it at the core right? Making each other happy.

Kurt decided to focus all of his attention on his favorite boy in the world, and he decided to push all thoughts of Blaine or Cooper out of his mind to talk to his son and find out about his day. He would have more time to figure it out when Eli went to bed.

As they were on their way home, Eli spoke up. "Daddy?"

"Whats up Eli?" Kurt said, looking at him through the rearview mirror when he stopped at a red light.

"What was Charlie's daddy talking about earlier?" Eli asked

"We might be going over to Charlie's house for dinner. I'm not sure if we are going to though." Kurt said, not wanting to promise him anything.

Eli's face immediately lit up at the idea of going to his friends house, they hadn't gotten a chance yet to hang out after school, and Kurt new it was hard for Eli to make friends, and Charlie was easily his best friend. If he wasn't doing this for himself he should at least be doing it for Eli. Even though he wanted to do this for himself too.

"I said maybe buddy, not definitely." Kurt said, not looking back at his son's still bright face.

 _ **The next afternoon**_

Kurt had been deliberating on whether or not they were going to go with Blaine to Coopers house for dinner. Why was he making this such a big deal? I mean sure, he had a history of over dramatizing things since high school, but this was the worst he's been since then. Kurt got to Eli's daycare after a particularly annoying day at work.

 _First the right espresso bar broke and then the oven broke. Followed by the right espresso bar being fixed by one of his baristas but then that being followed by the left espresso bar breaking. Then, to top it all off, they ran out of milk and he had to go buy more from the grocery store. Like seriously?_

Again, he managed to get there just as Cooper was getting there to pick up Charlie. Kurt saw him walking up to the portable and walked in behind him, hoping that maybe there was a chance he wasn't noticed. Obviously he was, and Cooper turned around to see him as he sent Charlie off to get his bag before they left.

"So. I haven't heard anything from Blaine about you guys coming tonight, I'm assuming you're out?" Cooper said, not angry, but just genuinely curious.

"Actually, we'll be there. I was about to text Blaine once we got home." Kurt said. Hoping that his voice didn't sound as high as he thought it did.

Cooper didn't show much emotion though, he just nodded and gave a seemingly forced slight smile. He nodded his head and said goodbye to Jenny as he told Eli he couldn't wait to see him later with a bright smile.

Eli immediately jumped into his dad's arms, "We really get to go tonight? I can't wait! I can't wait to have a play date with Charlie!" Eli yelled in excitement.

Kurt laughed, loving how easy it was to be happy around his favorite person in the world, even after a long and shitty day.

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

 _I can't believe he agreed. This is weird, should this be weird? What if he just wanted to meet Cooper because I talked about him so much and he was just curious. What if this wasn't some sort of huge step for him? I mean it doesn't have to be, it could just be parents meeting for their kids to play and i'm the random uncle of one of them._

Blaine's thoughts were running wild as he walked into his apartment. He knew he was overthinking everything, but he couldn't help it. He had only had one other experience that was kind of a relationship, and that one went horribly wrong. He didn't want to have to deal with losing Kurt, there was just something about Kurt that made Blaine want to be around him as much as he could. He knew it was dangerous to like Kurt this much, but he couldn't really help himself.

He cleared his head and turned on his Bluetooth speaker, in his bedroom and decided to blast some music. As soon as "Welcome to the Black Parade" came on, Blaine started singing loudly as he undressed and got ready to take a shower.

 _When I was a young boy_

 _My father took me into the city_

 _To see a marching band_

 _He said, son, when you grow up_

 _Would you be the savior of the broken_

 _The beaten, and the damned?_

 _He said, will you defeat them_

 _Your demons and all the non-believers?_

He walked into the shower with the speaker in hand and placed it on the showers music playing through the sound of the water, letting Blaine get completely wrapped in the music. The next song, "Foolish Thing" started playing and he couldn't suppress the grin on his face.

 _Good morning_

 _Welcome to the kingdom_

 _I've got my ducks all in a row_

 _They're exactly how I like them_

 _But now I'm afraid_

 _They've gone_

 _Good afternoon_

 _I'm losing focus_

 _My soldiers are putting down their guns_

 _And I think, 'oh no',_

 _Where will they go?_

 _Maybe all this time_

 _Maybe all this time_

 _I've been wrong_

 _Falling in love was another foolish thing_

 _That I never really needed_

 _But you were the first to change my mind_

 _You're knocking me off of my horse and here I lay_

 _Fallen and defeated_

 _I'd leave it all behind_

 _For this foolish thing of mine_

He finished the song and stepped out of the shower with a little spring in his step, that song always managed to put him in a good mood. He settled on a nice pair of skinny jeans, with a white button up and a black undershirt. Hoping Kurt would appreciate the tight jeans. He left the house with more than enough time to spare to go pick up Kurt, and sent him a text that he was on his way when he got in the car.

╔═══*.·:·. ✧ ✦ ✧ .·:·.*═══╗

Kurt was glad Eli was excited about being able to see Charlie, but trying to get him ready had been quite the ordeal tonight. Especially when he had agreed to go so last minute, they didn't have as much time as Kurt would have liked. He took a shower as fast as he could and then forced Eli in for a quick one as well. He didn't get a lot of time with his outfit choice but ended up being relatively happy with what he picked in the end considering the amount of time he had. Helping Eli had been the biggest battle that night though. Blaine had texted him as he was finishing getting Eli dressed, and now all he had to do was get his socks and shoes on. Usually he would have been a little more angry but he couldn't be angry when he saw the huge ear to ear grin on Eli's face at being able to see his best friend for the first time out of school, which is why he wasn't as hard on him as he would have been.

Kurt managed to get Eli's shoes on as he heard the knock on his door. He opened it to see Blaine as handsome as ever with a radiating smile on his face. All the stress he just had trying to get Eli ready melted away. He returned a soft smile and let Blaine lead him out the door, arms locked, with Eli holding Kurt's hand walking next to him. He gave Blaine and Kurt a suspicious look, but decided not to say anything about it, not wanting to annoy his dad any more for the moment.

They got to Cooper's house shortly, talking about what had been happening with them since they hadn't seen each other, Eli still keeping quiet in the backseat, looking out of the window during their entire ride there. Kurt looked back to see what was wrong with his son, he figured that Eli would be endlessly talking about what he was going to do with Charlie and how excited he was for his first play date. He replied when Blaine asked him some questions but didn't talk more after the fact. Blaine eyed Kurt to his right and Kurt just shrugged with a worried look on his face, hoping he didn't do anything to upset his son.

By the time they were pulling up to the sidewalk in front of Cooper's house, Kurt was anxiously tapping his foot, not knowing what to do with his hands. Blaine saw him out of of the corner of his eyes as he turned the car off. He walked around to Kurt's door while he was seemingly lost in a train of thought and opened his door and leaned in to kiss Kurt. Kurt accepted the kiss gladly and pulled away with a bright smile on his face.

"Don't be so nervous, they are going to love you. I promise." Blaine said, mentally high fiving himself for not saying " _like I do"_ at the end of it, surprised that the thought to say that even came into his mind.

Kurt nodded and got out of the car, going around it to get Eli out. Kurt kneeled in front of him when they got out of the car, and stroked his hands through his hair.

"Are you okay buddy? You were quiet the whole ride over. If you want to go home we can, I won't force you to stay here if you don't to be okay?" Kurt said, not knowing that Blaine's face immediately fell at the idea of something like that happening. He knew that if for whatever reason Eli didn't like him or his family, Kurt would put Eli in front of everyone. Understandably, but Blaine wouldn't be able to handle it if he lost Kurt for that reason. Plus, he became really fond of Eli even over the short period of time that they had known each other. He felt a tug in his chest at seeing Eli so sad.

Blaine took a shot and just hoped that he wasn't overstepping, but he squatted down next to Kurt, and put his hand on Kurt's knee.

"You know Eli," Blaine started, hoping to turn around Eli's attitude. "Since Charlie's daddy told Charlie that you might be coming over, he's been telling me all about all of his power ranger toys and how excited he was to have someone to play with." Blaine finished.

"Really?" Eli said, almost excited.

Kurt turned to Blaine and smiled, if there was any question of whether or not Blaine liked Eli, he was sure that there was none now. Blaine was in it, for Kurt and Eli.

"Yeah, you like power rangers right?" Blaine said, his voice getting more excited at seeing Eli happier.

"I love power rangers! My favorite is dino thunder!" Eli said, grinning at Blaine.

"Really? I think Charlie has those kind! Do you wanna go see?" Blaine said, feeling happier than he had felt in a long time at knowing that he put that smile on that boys face.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Eli said, accepting Blaine's high five offer and turning around to go into the house.

Blaine turned to see Kurt kneeling down and leaning his cheek down on his knee turning to look at Blaine with a soft smile on his face.

"You're amazing, you know that?" Kurt said, terrified and thrilled with how happy Blaine managed to make him every time he was with him.

Blaine turned to Kurt and returned his smile, grabbed his hand and pulled him up with him, and gave him a soft chaste kiss. Kurt smiled into it and turned to go with Eli to Cooper's front door. Eli was turned around looking at them with a confused look, but not necessarily a negative one. Kurt motioned for Eli to continue walking and went to catch up with him, Blaine following shortly after him.

They were greeted with a wide grin from the whole family as they walked in, but Cooper's didn't seem fully genuine, Kurt couldn't peg it but it felt like something was wrong between him and Cooper, and he didn't like the idea of that being the case. He knew how much Blaine cared about Cooper, and he wasn't sure how his chances were if Cooper didn't end up liking him, that was why he was so damn nervous for this dinner.

Dinner went off without a hitch, Kurt was surprised how easy it was to warm up to Blaine's family, and was glad that it was returned (for the most part, Cooper still felt weird for him). Eli and Charlie had a great time playing together and pleas were made for there to be another playdate between the two of them, the next time at Kurt's home. Kurt didn't want to promise Eli anything but didn't see why something like that couldn't be arranged.

Kurt was surprised how much he loved Liz though, they had the same taste in fashion, music, movies, she was just so easy to talk to that Kurt was kind of blown away. Cooper was always polite and joined conversation when needed, and even asked Kurt a few questions about his past which turned into him explaining why they ended up back in Columbus even though Kurt had wanted to leave Ohio so badly.

Kurt talked about his family and how much he missed seeing his dad and Carole as often as he used to but the drive was usually impossible for him to make considering his hectic work schedule. Even though they went down there every two weekends or so he still wished he saw his family more.

They talked long after dinner until the boy's bedtimes reached them and they said their goodbyes. Talking of hopefully doing it again in the future. Blaine lead Kurt out to the car, the drive home was relatively quiet considering they were trying to stay quiet as ot not wake up Eli in the back seat, he had fallen asleep almost as soon as they had gotten into the car.

They pulled up to Kurt's apartment and Kurt led Blaine into his home. Kurt carried Eli into his room still asleep and closed the door behind him, kissing Eli's head on the way out. They moved out to the living room and Kurt brought out a glass of red wine for each of them.

"Thank you so much for coming tonight, I was afraid you wouldn't come." Blaine said, leaning his head on Kurt's shoulder.

"I was kinda afraid to come" Kurt said. Stroking his hands down Blaine's arm.

Blaine sat up and put his wine glass down on the table, turning to face Kurt completely, legs crossed on the couch.

"Why is that?" Blaine asked, eyes sincere and… worried?

"It's nothing." Kurt said, not wanting to get into this now.

"No, tell me?" Blaine almost whispered. Kurt had never seen Blaine this vulnerable and his stomach dropped when he saw how concerned Blaine seemed to be. He really wanted Kurt to like them.

"I just…" Kurt said, knowing this was going to be difficult to say. "I was afraid that when I did this… agreed to meet your family, that it would make what was between us be one hundred percent real." Kurt finished, opening his eyes to see Blaine's face crushed.

"I thought this already was real," Blaine said, voice small. "But if it isn't, then we can stop whatever it is between us. I don't want to be with someone that doesn't want the same thing." Blaine finished, stepping up to get ready to leave. He really wanted to say that it was okay, and that he understood the fear. But he was all in for Kurt, he didn't know what it was about him but he fell for him so hard so fast.

Kurt got up after him just as he reached the door and grabbed his arm, turning him around to face him. Kurt stared right into his hazel eyes, full of emotion, and said the thing he was the most afraid to say to him.

"I didn't want this before, I was afraid to be with someone that would just leave me high and dry in a month or so. But I want you Blaine. I like you a lot, and I don't want to lose this." Kurt choked out, blinking back tears.

Blaine didn't even think, he grabbed Kurt's cheeks and pulled him in for a deep kiss. Kurt smiled into the kiss and lead them into his bedroom, falling into bed.

"Wait." Kurt said, stopping Blaine from kissing down his shirtless chest. Causing him to look up at him. When Kurt knew he had his attention he started again.

"Will you be my boyfriend?" Kurt asked, laughing at the question he asked.

Blaine didn't answer, he just crawled back up Kurt's body with a wide smile and enveloped him in a fierce kiss.

"I'll take that as a yes then?" Kurt said, breathless as they pulled apart.

 **Hey guys! I know this has been quite the delay and i'm once again sorry, also the song in this chapter called Foolish Thing is actually by Darren Criss, and I thought of it because i literally always smile when i hear it. It's a great song and if you haven't heard it you should stop whatever it is you're doing and go listen to it. I also loved it particularly for this story because it seemed like it really summed up Blaine as a whole. Either way that was my thought process behind it love you all. Oh also the song before that was "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance. Even though i suspect most people knew the song already.**

 **Ryder :D**


End file.
